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Well it didn't help when the CIA got caught posing as health workers giving out polio vaccination in Pakistan.

LordShredda 3y ago
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vaccinations-osama-bin-ladens-dna https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vacci... The taliban started attacking polio vaccine workers and the UN suspended operations. Polio exists in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria
codezero 3y ago
The scheme was for hepatitis vaccinations. The article linked below just mentions that only health workers giving polio vaccines had previously been able to access the compound.
jryle70 3y ago
Why that certainly didn't help, the main reason has been misconception and religious belief: According to a study conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, respondents misconceived the vaccine to be capable of causing harm to the immune system (93%), triggering adverse reactions 97.5%, to be against their social and moral values (95%), and to be not as good as traditional methods for treating children 98.5% https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-28-2022/volume-28-issue-7/understanding-the-reasons-for-refusal-of-polio-vaccine-by-families-in-quetta-block-pakistan.html https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-28-2022/volume-28-issue...
- honksillet 3y ago
  Pakistani parents have good reason to not trust anything administered by a needle. 700 children recently contracted HIV. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hundreds-of-children-in-pakistan-have-been-infected-with-hiv-used-needles-could-be-to-blame/2019/06/06/467aac92-86cf-11e9-9d73-e2ba6bbf1b9b_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hundreds-o...
  - freshpots 3y ago
    "Pakistani parents have good reason to not trust anything administered by a needle. 700 children recently contracted HIV." Is not a good rationale for making a decision. Parents, indeed anyone, shouldn't be worried about anything administered by a needle unless proper protocols are not followed, and they always should.
    - austhrow743 3y ago
      They should pretend proper protocols are followed because proper protocols should be followed?
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      That's like saying the cure for cancer is not getting cancer.
      - polynomial 3y ago
        works every time.
        TomK32 3y ago
        Also works against speeding tickets. But don't tell anyone
    - K0balt 3y ago
      The outbreak of HIV in Pakistan is because of needle reuse.
      - hilbert42 3y ago
        I've mentioned this previously on HN. In the early 1960s when I was vaccinated at school we were done with a common needle that was used multiple times. Nowadays it's a horrific notion and should never be done but back then the horrors of polio were so real and frightening that doing multiple vaccinations with one needle was of secondary importance (or so it seems). I've often wondered since how many cases of polio and hepatitis were actually spread back then by using a common needle (I've never understood why even back then doctors weren't concerned about this). BTW, as I've mentioned previously, we kids were lined in the school's assembly hall in two long lines of over 100 that extended out the doors into the schoolyard—one line for boys and one for girls—and vaccinated immediately one after another. After every dozen or so kids the needle was changed. It quickly got around that a new needle didn't hurt as much as a well-used one and we kids started jostling for positions in the line. We watched and counted how often the needle was changed then count our position in the line, we then we'd pay pennies to buy an optimal positions in the line (be first after the needle was changed). That being first was less risky never entered our minds. At no time were we ever told about the dangers of sharing needles. As far as I am aware none of us got ill from that experience. Incidentally, the whole school of about 1100 kids was vaccinated in about an hour and half—between the morning tea break and lunchtime. Compare that with the slow rigmarole of vaccination campaigns of today.
pyuser583 3y ago
Yeah there was an X-Files episode where the CIA gathered DNA via polio vaccines. Which means someone at the CIA said, “Hey that thing that happened in the X-Files, let’s do that but for real!”
- smegger001 3y ago
  It doesn't inspire confidence when your spy agencies start stealing ideas from the villain spies who got caught in a TV show from the 90s
- slavik81 3y ago
  Wasn't it the Smallpox Eradication Program?
  - pyuser583 3y ago
    That may have been it! Spoiler: It was the one where Mulder finds his sister’s record, then tears off the name to see his own underneath. I doesn’t really matter though. The real world CIA vaccines were against Hepatitis B.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vaccinations-osama-bin-ladens-dna https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vacci... The taliban started attacking polio vaccine workers and the UN suspended operations. Polio exists in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria

codezero 3y ago

The scheme was for hepatitis vaccinations. The article linked below just mentions that only health workers giving polio vaccines had previously been able to access the compound.

jryle70 3y ago

Why that certainly didn't help, the main reason has been misconception and religious belief: According to a study conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, respondents misconceived the vaccine to be capable of causing harm to the immune system (93%), triggering adverse reactions 97.5%, to be against their social and moral values (95%), and to be not as good as traditional methods for treating children 98.5% https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-28-2022/volume-28-issue-7/understanding-the-reasons-for-refusal-of-polio-vaccine-by-families-in-quetta-block-pakistan.html https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-28-2022/volume-28-issue...

honksillet 3y ago
Pakistani parents have good reason to not trust anything administered by a needle. 700 children recently contracted HIV. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hundreds-of-children-in-pakistan-have-been-infected-with-hiv-used-needles-could-be-to-blame/2019/06/06/467aac92-86cf-11e9-9d73-e2ba6bbf1b9b_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hundreds-o...
- freshpots 3y ago
  "Pakistani parents have good reason to not trust anything administered by a needle. 700 children recently contracted HIV." Is not a good rationale for making a decision. Parents, indeed anyone, shouldn't be worried about anything administered by a needle unless proper protocols are not followed, and they always should.
  - austhrow743 3y ago
    They should pretend proper protocols are followed because proper protocols should be followed?
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    That's like saying the cure for cancer is not getting cancer.
    - polynomial 3y ago
      works every time.
      - TomK32 3y ago
        Also works against speeding tickets. But don't tell anyone
  - K0balt 3y ago
    The outbreak of HIV in Pakistan is because of needle reuse.
    - hilbert42 3y ago
      I've mentioned this previously on HN. In the early 1960s when I was vaccinated at school we were done with a common needle that was used multiple times. Nowadays it's a horrific notion and should never be done but back then the horrors of polio were so real and frightening that doing multiple vaccinations with one needle was of secondary importance (or so it seems). I've often wondered since how many cases of polio and hepatitis were actually spread back then by using a common needle (I've never understood why even back then doctors weren't concerned about this). BTW, as I've mentioned previously, we kids were lined in the school's assembly hall in two long lines of over 100 that extended out the doors into the schoolyard—one line for boys and one for girls—and vaccinated immediately one after another. After every dozen or so kids the needle was changed. It quickly got around that a new needle didn't hurt as much as a well-used one and we kids started jostling for positions in the line. We watched and counted how often the needle was changed then count our position in the line, we then we'd pay pennies to buy an optimal positions in the line (be first after the needle was changed). That being first was less risky never entered our minds. At no time were we ever told about the dangers of sharing needles. As far as I am aware none of us got ill from that experience. Incidentally, the whole school of about 1100 kids was vaccinated in about an hour and half—between the morning tea break and lunchtime. Compare that with the slow rigmarole of vaccination campaigns of today.

pyuser583 3y ago

Yeah there was an X-Files episode where the CIA gathered DNA via polio vaccines. Which means someone at the CIA said, “Hey that thing that happened in the X-Files, let’s do that but for real!”

smegger001 3y ago
It doesn't inspire confidence when your spy agencies start stealing ideas from the villain spies who got caught in a TV show from the 90s
slavik81 3y ago
Wasn't it the Smallpox Eradication Program?
- pyuser583 3y ago
  That may have been it! Spoiler: It was the one where Mulder finds his sister’s record, then tears off the name to see his own underneath. I doesn’t really matter though. The real world CIA vaccines were against Hepatitis B.