Thanks to this, we now have this:
Five female health workers vaccinating children against polio have been shot dead in Pakistan in a series of attacks blamed on Islamist militants. One victim was a 17-year-old schoolgirl volunteer.
...
... Pakistan, where there has been a severe backlash against immunisation for polio and other diseases since the CIA used a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to set up a fake vaccination programme as the agency closed in on the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in his hiding place in the town of Abbottabad, in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, last year.
More:
"What's most ironic, these are children from the most under-served communities, the worst off, being used for political purposes," she said. "This is one of the deepest tragedies."
...
Those killed this week are among Pakistan's 200,000 poorly paid local health workers, most of whom also provide such basic services as vitamin distribution.
*punchesawall*
Brilliant move, CIA. BRILLIANT.
IDEA: Why dont all the CIA officials who came up with/approved the idea of using vaccines as a ruse to find Osama bin Laden go out there and distribute polio vaccines?
*punchesawall*
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Probably an acceptable amount of collateral damage.
don't give them ideas.
Hearing about this on NPR this morning made me all shouty. (Which is better than weepy, which I had just been.)
It's very hard to get across to people who don't like and don't trust "western" medicine that, even though they don't like you and chances are that you don't like them, you are still risking life and limb to protect their children, even if those kids grow up to hate the vaccinator's people/government/country. Having the freakin' CIA use you as a shield and then brag about it? Not fucking helping.
It sucks that they made things worse, but polio vaccination had already been failing in the area.
They did manage to get Osama Bin Laden at least, consider the importance of that compared to speeding up something that was already inevitable (the refusal to accept western medicine).
@William Bell:
Bullshit. You pulled that out of your arse.
It wasn't the only time the USA used doctors to fight their dirty wars in that region:
http://my.firedoglake.com/jpsottile/2012/12/10/you-know-that-kidnapped-…
The only persons to blame for the cruel and irrational actions of cruel and irrational people are the cruel and irrational persons themselves.
The only persons to blame for the cruel and irrational actions of cruel and irrational people are the cruel and irrational persons themselves.
mostly so. you're right
As easy as it would be to blame this on irrationality; the people who commited these crimes are fighting against the US military while US intelligence forces are using health care services as a cover for spying in the region.
In those circumstances Islamists murdering health care providers is not an irrational act, it's an inevitable response.
Bruce: So you were OK with Saddam using human shields in the first Gulf War then? After all, if the US had blown up any of the shielded buildings, Saddam wouldn't have been to blame for the cruel and irrational actions of the cruel and irrational US military. Right?
While it is deplorable to use medical science and in particular vaccination, as a cover for covert military action, the people attacking health care workers are using it as excuse rather than impetus for their goal of denying women and children health care because they associate western medical care with birth control.
It is not more sophisticated or sinister than the rural Pakistani "warlords" convincing pregnant women that iodine supplements to prevent cretinism were a plot to sterilize them or cause spontaneous abortions.
You will notice that vitamins are part of that provision of medical care putting health care workers (mostly women) at risk. What is going on in Pakistan is keeping employed educated Pakistani women from assisting rural Pakistani women through the use of any pretense or rationalization available to commit violence.
When was the trial held? Scientists should have the detachment to realize that murder is murder.
--bks
This leans too far towards bullshit and propaganda. Anti-vaccination violence predates the CIA operation and that operation is not a cause of this campaign. The campaign has been going on in Nigeria and Pakistan for over a decade, with bombings and shootings recorded years before the Bin Laden op. Western liberals mean well, but usually dont know as much about the world as they think.
http://www.brownpundits.com/2013/02/08/female-polio-workers-targeted-in…