Polio Workers Shot in Pakistan

ScienceInsider ^ | 23 July 2012 | Leslie Roberts

[neverdem]

A man working for the World Health Organization (WHO) on the polio eradication campaign was shot and killed in Karachi, Pakistan, on the evening of 20 July. Muhammad Ishaq was shot outside his clinic in a rough slum area of Karachi known as Gadap. Ishaq, who was from the local community, died en route to the hospital.

Just 3 days earlier, two gunmen shot a Ghanaian doctor working for WHO and his Pakistani driver, who were participating in a national polio vaccination campaign, in their car. The doctor was wounded in the stomach; the driver suffered a grazing wound on his shoulder. Both men are recovering.

After the first shooting, WHO cancelled the remainder of the vaccination campaign in Gadap and put in place stepped-up security measures.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the shootings and there is no definitive evidence linking the two events, says Bruce Aylward, an assistant director general of WHO and the longtime leader of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Similarly, it is unclear whether the shootings were random or targeted polio workers specifically. Until they get more evidence, says Aylward, "our operating assumption is that [the shootings] may be related, and that affects how we approach security."

Gadap is a densely populated slum with a large minority and migrant population; many of the residents are from the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, where opposition to any government-run or Western program is intense. Rumors abound that the polio vaccine is unsafe and is part of a U.S.-led campaign to sterilize Muslim children. About a month earlier, a leader of a Taliban faction in North Waziristan banned polio vaccination in his part of the tribal area until U.S. drone strikes stop.

Expressing its deep sorrow, WHO issued a statement saying the shootings will not distract from the progress Pakistan is making in its fight to wipe out polio. Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, is one of three so-called endemic countries where transmission of the poliovirus has never been interrupted.

[neverdem]

Become energy independent and quarantine Islam.

[DoughtyOne]

Sounds like a good idea.

The other day I heard about polio workers being killed.

The report was that the entity that killed them, claimed they would only allow the polio workers to live once the U. S. was out of the country (or something similar to this).

Okay, so your family can get polio, become deformed and or die, in order to teach the U. S. a lesson.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Do these people realize how stupid they appear to thinking people?

[Slings and Arrows]

Islam in action.

http://www.danielpipes.org/2644/a-conspiracy-theory-spreads-polio

[Truth29]

The anti-Western bias is horrific. There was also an incident some time ago, IIRC in Africa where the arms of the vaccinated children were hacked off to deter cooperation with aid groups.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link!

[Jack Hammer]

Yes, yes, yes; killing the workers who are bringing health to your country - makes a Moslem kinda sense.

[Slings and Arrows]

My pleasure.

[piasa]

By joyously bragging -leaking- about our methodology for locating Osama bin Laden using the vaccine program and the Paki doctor, the leakers effectively confirmed superstition and myths about the US, and also destroyed he credibility of the aid program and endangered medical aid workers. They also condemned a lot of kids to a miserable disease, though some of the kids probably would grow up to become recruits for jihadis anyway. Others whose grateful parents might have raised their kids to do better things, are doomed now because they are unfortunate enough to live in areas controlled by terrorists who will not permit aid groups to enter for fear they could be spies. And of course the leakers screwed the good doctor up real well, and any locals who may have helped him by aossiciation, even if they knew nothing of what he was doing. All that bragging just denied us a future vector for gathering intel through aid workers, who are now viewed with more suspicion.

[piasa]

aossiciation

Ok, keyboard says time for bed.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Rumors abound that the polio vaccine is unsafe and is part of a U.S.-led campaign to sterilize Muslim children.

Stands to reason; Salk was a Jew.

Paul Wakefield deserves a special place in Hell.

[kearnyirish2]

These populations exploded when Western medicine cut their infant mortality rates and prolonged their life expectancies. No good deed goes unpunished...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

[Intelligence agency leakers have] condemned a lot of kids to a miserable disease

If you are not furious now, you never will be.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

These populations exploded when Western medicine cut their infant mortality rates and prolonged their life expectancies.

Which ones would you cull?

[kearnyirish2]

“Which ones would you cull?”

None of them, though I wouldn’t be sending them to Pakistan anytime soon.

[Cronos]

I agree. nuke mecca and madina

[Cronos]

Rumors abound that the polio vaccine is unsafe and is part of a U.S.-led campaign to sterilize Muslim childre

Spread the rumour that all Western medicine and technology is a conspiracy to sterilize Moslems...

[Cronos]

With due respect to ki, he didn't talk of culling anyone, he just pointed out that Western medicine gave more Moslems the chance to live -- AND now Moslems are rejecting it.

So, in effect they seem to want to cull themselves...

[oh8eleven]

Rumors abound that the polio vaccine is unsafe and is part of a U.S.-led campaign to sterilize Muslim children.
This is the same mentality that Holder's people have with regard to AIDS - "African-Americans and the AIDS Conspiracy."

[ADSUM]

We can thank Rotary International a group of international private service clubs that organized Polio Plus and have worked diligently to eliminate polio, raised money, got governments involve and have reached 99% of its goal over the last 25 years.

Somehow the governments (WHO) get the credit for the volunteer work of the many.

http://www.rotary.org/en/EndPolio/Pages/learn.aspx

[RipSawyer]

“Do these people realize how stupid they appear to thinking people?”
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Of course not, if they did they wouldn’t be acting as they do. Do Americans who think the answer to the theater shootings is to take guns away from everyone realize they are idiots? Of course they don’t.