medicaltreatment:vaccinations

  • Opinion | This Is the Truth About Vaccines - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/opinion/vaccines-autism-flu.html

    Vaccinations save lives, protect our children and are one of our greatest public health achievements. As public health officials, our role is to advance the health of the American people. This must include championing vaccinations.

    Diseases like polio, measles, diphtheria and rubella were once common in the United States, afflicting hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults, and killing thousands each year. Some older Americans may remember the fear associated with polio outbreaks and the era of iron lungs and leg braces — a time when swimming pools and movie theaters closed over concerns about the spread of the crippling disease. Others may recall the heartbreaking wave of rubella in the 1960s that resulted in thousands of newborn deaths, with thousands more born blind, deaf or with other lifelong disabilities.

    We cannot let America be faced with these fears again. For those of us who have treated critically ill children with vaccine-preventable diseases, we know firsthand the devastation to the child — and to the family and community — of a death, limb amputation or severe brain damage that could have been avoided by a simple vaccination.

    Consider measles. The World Health Organization estimates that measles vaccination prevented more than 21 million deaths worldwide since 2000. Although routine childhood vaccination for measles remains high in the United States (greater than 91 percent for preschool children), localized dips in vaccination coverage have resulted in a recent resurgence of measles in parts of the country. A total of 17 measles outbreaks affecting more than 370 individuals have been confirmed in 2018 alone, and 10 states are already reporting cases this year. Unfortunately, many more communities are at risk for outbreaks because of areas with low vaccine coverage.

    #Vaccination #Santé_publique

  • Russian bots were used to sow divisions on vaccines, researchers say - STAT
    https://www.statnews.com/2018/08/23/vaccines-russian-bots

    An analysis of Twitter accounts previously identified as having been operated by Russian bots and trolls found they dove into the vaccine debate as early as January 2015, the researchers reported. They did not take one side or the other, but seemed to tweet pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine messages in roughly equal measure.

    (…) “The more the vaccine ‘debate’… is amplified it gains an undeserved sense of legitimacy and gives vaccine-hesitant individuals a pretense to forgo vaccination for themselves and their children,” said Adalja, who was harshly critical of the use of vaccinations in efforts to turn people against each other, calling it “overtly nihilistic.”

    #nihilisme #santé #vaccins #twitter #bots (russes évidemment)

    • Le résumé de l’étude (texte complet derrière #paywall)

      Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate | AJPH | Ahead of Print
      https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567

      Abstract

      Objectives. To understand how Twitter bots and trolls (“bots”) promote online health content.

      Methods. We compared bots’ to average users’ rates of vaccine-relevant messages, which we collected online from July 2014 through September 2017. We estimated the likelihood that users were bots, comparing proportions of polarized and antivaccine tweets across user types. We conducted a content analysis of a Twitter hashtag associated with Russian troll activity.

      Results. Compared with average users, Russian trolls (χ2(1) = 102.0; P < .001), sophisticated bots (χ2(1) = 28.6; P < .001), and “content polluters” (χ2(1) = 7.0; P < .001) tweeted about vaccination at higher rates. Whereas content polluters posted more antivaccine content (χ2(1) = 11.18; P < .001), Russian trolls amplified both sides. Unidentifiable accounts were more polarized (χ2(1) = 12.1; P < .001) and antivaccine (χ2(1) = 35.9; P < .001). Analysis of the Russian troll hashtag showed that its messages were more political and divisive.

      Conclusions. Whereas bots that spread malware and unsolicited content disseminated antivaccine messages, Russian trolls promoted discord. Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination.

      Public Health Implications. Directly confronting vaccine skeptics enables bots to legitimize the vaccine debate. More research is needed to determine how best to combat bot-driven content.

      a Twitter hashtag associated with Russian troll activity
      mais encore ?

    • aucun #DOI ne résiste à sci-hub :)

      This analysis is supplemented by a qualitative study of #VaccinateUS — a Twitter hashtag designed to promote discord using vaccination as a political wedge issue. #VaccinateUS tweets were uniquely identified with Russian troll accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency—a company backed by the Russian government specializing in online influence operations. 20

      [20]. Popken B. Twitter deleted Russian troll tweets. So we published more than 200,000 of them. Available at:
      https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/nowavailable-more-200-000-deleted-russian-troll-tweetsn844731.

  • Opinion | Will the Next Superbug Come From Yemen? - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/opinion/sunday/yemen-antibiotic-resistance-disease.html

    Before the war, #Yemen had a functioning, if fragile, health system. The war destroyed it, along with the country’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Many small children are not even getting routine vaccinations. Nearly 18 million people are hungry, with many close to famine levels. By conservative estimates, 10,000 civilians have been killed, with 52,000 more wounded — fertile ground for drug resistance.

    Antibiotic consumption was already very high in the region. A 2014 study found a prevalence of nonprescription antibiotic use by 48 percent of the population in Saudi Arabia and 78 percent in Yemen. Syria was a major producer of antibiotics, both for itself and for export.

    It’s a recipe for catastrophe: a struggling health system where antibiotics remain widely available with little oversight, combined with an overwhelming number of wounded in hospitals and weak hygiene and infection-control practices. Doctors in Yemen, struggling to treat the rush of patients, often use broad-spectrum antibiotics on even simple infections. “This creates a new generation of multidrug-resistant bacteria,” Dr. Mansoor said, and inadvertently sets the stage for a public health meltdown.

    #antibio_résistance #antibiotiques

  • Israeli army warns: Danger of violence escalating into war is growing -

    With eye on recent events, military intel warn of potential war ■ Abbas may have backed himself into a corner ■ Gaza threat looms over Israelis

    Amos Harel 13.01.2018
    read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.834343

    The odds of a neighboring country, or one of the terrorist organizations operating inside of it, launching a war against Israel this year are almost nonexistent, according to the Israeli army’s intelligence assessment for 2018.
    Sounding remarkably similar to the 2017 assessment provided to the defense minister, the military noted there is not much left of the Arab armies, and Israel’s neighbors are mostly preoccupied with themselves, while internal problems are distracting Hezbollah and Hamas.
    Is there any difference from 2017? Well, the danger of deterioration – perhaps even to the point of war – has grown significantly, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot stated. The intelligence branch and the chief of staff, who is beginning his fourth and final year at the helm of the army, are concerned about two possible scenarios. 
    The first would be the result of a reaction by one of Israel’s enemies to an Israeli show of force. The second would stem from a flare-up on the Palestinian front. When the terrorism genie gets out of the Palestinian bottle, it takes many months or even years to put it back.
    The first scenario, which the army terms “the campaign between the wars,” might happen when Israel tries to prevent rivals from obtaining advance weaponry they might want to use during a future war, according to Eisenkot.

    Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, center, being briefed by Col. Gilad Amit, commander of the Samaria Brigade, following the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, January 18, 2018.IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
    Most of these operations occur under the radar, far from Israel’s borders. Usually, such operations draw little media attention and Israel invariably dodges the question of responsibility. The previous Israel Air Force commander, Gen. Amir Eshel, told Haaretz last August there were nearly 100 such attacks under his five-year command, mostly on Syrian and Hezbollah arms convoys on the northern front.

    However, the more Israel carries out such attacks, and the more it does so on increasingly sophisticated systems (according to foreign media reports), the higher the chances of a confrontation with other countries and organizations, increasing the danger of a significant retaliation.
    A similar thing is happening on the Gaza border. Work on the defense barrier against cross-border attack tunnels is advancing, while Israel is simultaneously developing and implementing more sophisticated methods to locate these tunnels.
    At least three tunnels were seemingly located and destroyed near the Gaza border in recent months. However, this success could exact a price if Hamas or Islamic Jihad decide to try and use the remaining attack tunnels before they are completely destroyed or redundant.

    Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, accompanied by Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot during a visit to a military exercise in the Golan Heights in 2017.Ministry of Defense
    It is usually accepted practice to call out intelligence officials over mistaken forecasts. But we received a small example of all these trends on various fronts over the past two weeks. The cabinet convened for a long meeting about the northern front last Sunday. Arab media reported early Tuesday morning about an Israeli attack on Syrian army weapons depots near Damascus. A base in the same area, which Iran had reportedly built for one of the Shi’ite militia groups, was bombed from the air in early December. In most of the recent attacks, the Syrians fired at the reportedly Israeli aircraft. The Syrians also claimed recently that the attacks have become more sophisticated, made in multiple waves and even included surface-to-surface missiles.
    A few days beforehand, there was a report about an Israeli aerial attack – apparently on a cross-border attack tunnel – next to the Gaza border. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the demonstrations to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital were dying down, out of a seeming lack of public interest. Then, on Tuesday evening, Rabbi Raziel Shevach, from the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, was killed in a drive-by shooting attack near Nablus. The army responded by surrounding villages and erecting roadblocks around Nablus, for the first time in two years. The IDF moves were acts of collective punishment the chief of staff would normally rather avoid, but they were approved on a limited basis due to the murder of an Israeli.
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that the Shin Bet security service is close to solving the murder, but at the time of writing it was still unclear who did it. Hamas and Islamic Jihad released statements praising the deed, while, in a rare move, Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – which has been virtually inactive for a decade – took responsibility for the attack.
    Its statement, which was posted on several Facebook pages, attributed the attack to the “Raed Karmi cell,” marking the anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leader’s death. Israel assassinated Karmi – the military leader in Tul Karm responsible for the killing of many Israeli civilians and soldiers during the second intifada – on January 14, 2002.

    U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a more amicable time, May 3, 2017Carlos Barria, Reuters
    Woe to Abbas
    The Palestinian Authority, whose leadership has avoided condemning the murder of an Israeli citizen, is making an effort nonetheless to capture terrorists in designated areas in Nablus under its jurisdiction. The Israeli moves in the area added to the humiliation of the PA, which looks like it has navigated itself into a dead end. 
    President Mahmoud Abbas is in trouble. The Trump declaration on Jerusalem provided him with a temporary escape. Last November the Palestinians received worrisome information that the Trump administration’s brewing peace plan was leaning in Israel’s favor. Trump’s so-called deal of the century would likely include leaving settlements in the West Bank in place, and declaring Abu Dis the Palestinian Jerusalem, capital of a prospective state.
    These planks are unacceptable to Abbas. However, the Trump declaration allowed the PA leader to accuse the Americans of giving up any pretense to being an honest broker. He found refuge in the embrace of attendees at the Islamic Conference in Turkey, and in halting all discussion of renewing negotiations.
    Abbas soon discovered that rejecting a reopening of talks with Israel didn’t stop the drumbeat of bad news coming his way. UNRWA was facing a severe financial crisis well before the Trump administration threatened to freeze the U.S. share of funding for the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugee assistance. The crisis, incidentally, also worries Jordan, which hosts at least 3 million Palestinian refugees and descendants. The flow of funds from the donor nations to the territories is dissipating, at a time that the reconciliation process between the PA and Hamas has ground to a halt, with Abbas saying he doesn’t see any benefit that can come of it.
    Meanwhile, Fatah members from activists in the field to the aging leadership are despairing of the chance of realizing the two-state solution. Israel protests the statements of senior Fatah officials about the right to wage armed struggle. It recently arrested a retired Palestinian general on the charge that he had organized protests in East Jerusalem. Fatah plans a council meeting next week, in which participants are expected to adopt a militant line.
    Abbas, who turns 83 in March, is increasingly feeling his years. His health has deteriorated and so has his patience and fitness to work, although it seems his love for travel has not faded. Claims of widespread corruption, some of which allegedly involve his family, are increasing. Other forces in the West Bank are aware of his weakened physical and political condition. Hamas is vigorously encouraging attacks against Israel, probably in expectation of humiliating the PA. Last week the Shin Bet asserted that for the first time, an Iranian agent was operating a Palestinian terror cell in Hebron.
    Meanwhile, a multiparty effort is being made to halt the violence and prevent a sliding into a military confrontation. Under the shadow of rockets by Salafi groups in Gaza, Israel and the PA announced the transfer of additional funds from the PA to pay for increasing the electricity supply from Israel to the Strip. There has not been a single rocket fired this week, but the situation remains fragile. The army increased security around communities close to the border and has stepped up exercises that simulate terrorists using tunnels to infiltrate under the border to kidnap and kill Israelis. The chief of staff watched the elite Shaldag unit going into action in such a scenario this week.

    Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants take part in the funeral of their comrade in the central Gaza Strip October 31, 2017. SUHAIB SALEM/REUTERS
    The army has to stay alert because Islamic Jihad has yet to avenge the killing of its people together with Hamas operatives in a tunnel explosion on the border last October. In November, Jihad militants fired over 20 mortar shells in a four-minute span at an army outpost near Sderot (no one was injured).
    Shells were fired a month after that, probably by Islamic Jihad, at Kibbutz Kfar Aza during a memorial ceremony for Oron Shaul, who was killed in the 2014 Operation Protective Edge and whose body is being held in Gaza. Army officials expect more attempts.
    The large number of gliders the Palestinians have launched near the border recently likely attests to intelligence gathering ahead of attacks. Israeli officials are also kept awake by recent reports from Syria of a mysterious glider attack against a Russian air force base in the country’s north. Organizations in Gaza are in arm’s reach of this technology.

    An opposition fighter fires a gun from a village near al-Tamanah during ongoing battles with government forces in Syria’s Idlib province on January 11, 2018.OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP
    Syria war still isn’t over 
    The civil war in Syria, which enters its eighth year in March, has not completely died out. The Assad regime, which has restored its rule over most of the country’s population, is still clashing with rebels in the Idlib enclave in northern Syria and is preparing for an eventual attack to chase the rebels out of the border area with Israel, along the Golan. The two attacks on the Russian base in Khmeimim (artillery shelling, which damaged a number of planes and helicopters, preceded the glider attack) indicate that some of the groups are determined to keep fighting Assad and his allies.
    The war in Syria started with a protest by residents of Daraa, a town in the south, against a backdrop of economic difficulties for farmers whose incomes were suffering from desertification. The regime’s brutal methods of oppression led to the spread of protest, and things quickly descended into civil war, in which several countries have meddled until today. The war often has consequences on nature. There has been a rise in the number of rabies cases in Israel in recent months, mainly in the north. One of the possible explanations involves the migration of rabies-infested jackals from Jordan and Syria. During the war Syria has suffered a total collapse of civilian authority, and certainly of veterinary services. When there are no regular vaccinations, neighboring countries suffer as well.
    The Middle Eastern country suffering the second bloodiest civil war, Yemen, gets only a tenth as much attention as Syria. The war in Yemen has raged for three years. Some 3 million residents out of a total of 28 million have fled the country as refugees. Over half of those remaining suffer from food insecurity. The UN recently estimated that about a million residents have contracted cholera from contaminated water or food.
    Such outbreaks can erupt easily, even closer to home. The European Union is expected to hold an emergency session in Brussels about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Israeli defense establishment has confirmed the frequent reports by humanitarian organizations of the continued collapse of civilian infrastructure, mainly water and sanitation, in Gaza. Wastewater from Gaza, flowing straight into the sea, is reaching the beaches of Ashkelon and Ashdod. I recently asked a senior Israeli official if he doesn’t fear an outbreak of an epidemic like cholera in Gaza.
    “Every morning, I am surprised anew that it still hasn’t happened,” he replied.

    Amos Harel

  • Two New #Polio Cases In #Nigeria Are The First Detected In Africa In More Than Two Years : Goats and Soda : NPR
    http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/12/489762952/polio-rears-its-head-again-in-africa

    Health officials in Nigeria are gearing up for a massive emergency polio immunization drive after two children were paralyzed by the disease.

    The two new polio cases in Nigeria are the first detected on the African continent in more than 2 years.

    Nigerian health officials plan to vaccinate nearly 5 million kids across the northeast of the country in an effort to contain this latest outbreak.

    The re-emergence of polio in Nigeria is a major setback for global efforts to eradicate the disease.

    Prior to this week the polio virus appeared to be on the verge of defeat: Afghanistan and Pakistan were the only countries reporting ongoing transmission of the virus. Including these two children who’ve been paralyzed in Nigeria there’ve been only 21 polio cases reported anywhere in the world this year.

    The two Nigerian cases were found in the volatile northeastern state of Borno along the border with Chad. The area is a stronghold of Boko Haram, which has made routine immunization drives difficult. The terror group has publicly denounced the #vaccination campaigns as a Western plot, killed immunizers and made it difficult for government health officials to even enter some parts of the country.

  • Defense.gov News Article: Officials Declare Overseas #Polio as Public Health Emergency
    http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=122747

    “We don’t want to bring polio back into the United States,” she added, noting that some groups in this country are opposed to vaccinations. “All it will take is someone to bring it back here and infect a community that is unvaccinated,” she emphasized. “Even one case would one would be devastating.”

    la vision sécuritaire de la #santé

  • Border Centers Struggle to Handle Onslaught of Young Migrants - NYTimes.com

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/us/border-centers-struggle-to-handle-onslaught-of-children-crossers.html?emc=e

    NOGALES, Ariz. — In a 120,000-square-foot warehouse on the edge of this desert city, Border Patrol agents line up hundreds of children who may have never seen a doctor for basic vaccinations and other medical care, hand out snacks or join them for a game of basketball under a circuslike tent that doubles as a recreation room.

    In a makeshift processing center, the children — all minors caught crossing the border in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas without parents — are housed for as many as three days or more in nine holding pens. Boys are separated from girls and older children from younger ones; teenage mothers and their babies stay in a cell of their own.

    #migrations #asile #états-unis #enfance #mexique

  • The CIA Aided Polio’s Comeback–but #Media Have Forgotten the Story
    http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/05/07/the-cia-aided-polios-comeback-but-media-have-forgotten-the-story

    #Polio had been battled to near-extinction after decades of effort, but this year the WHO confirmed 68 new cases and declared it an international public health emergency. Nearly 80 percent of those cases are in Pakistan.

    Why is this? According to the New York Times’ Donald McNeil Jr. (5/6/14), “Polio has never been eliminated there, Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in North Waziristan for years, and those elsewhere have murdered vaccine teams.” McNeil also quotes a WHO spokesperson towards the top of the piece: “So we’re saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, ’You’ve really got to get your acts together.”’

    The Times underlined the emergency today in an editorial, explaining that Pakistan has such high numbers “largely because Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in conservative tribal areas and attacked healthcare workers elsewhere.”

    There’s a crucial piece of information missing here—one that these outlets know full well. In 2011, the British Guardian (7/11/11) reported that the CIA used a fake vaccination drive led by Pakistani Dr. Shakil Afridi to gain entry to bin Laden’s compound and gather DNA to confirm his presence there. As McNeil himself reported in 2012 (7/9/12), that revelation led to suspicion and banning of vaccination teams in the tribal areas of Pakistan. At the time, the WHO argued that, while it was a “setback…unless it spreads or is a very longtime affair, the program is not going to be seriously affected.”

    Then the killings started; the #Times reported several times on killings of polio vaccination workers in Pakistan, noting in June 2013 that these attacks “escalated” after the revelation of the #CIA plot. And the following month, McNeil reported that after Dr. Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason, “Anger deepened when American lawmakers called Dr. Afridi a hero and threatened to cut off aid if he was not released.”

    Fast forward to this week, and CBS Evening News (5/5/14) likewise avoided the CIA connection in reporting the most recent story, as anchor Scott Pelley noted: “Most cases are in Pakistan, where vaccine workers have been murdered on suspicion that they’re spying for the United States.”

    The PBS NewsHour (5/6/14) was one of the only outlets that mentioned the CIA issue, in a report by correspondent Jeffrey Brown:

    BROWN: Dr. Anita Zaidi, a pediatrician, cited a fake vaccination campaign that the CIA used in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

    ZAIDI: Which has hugely damaged public health programs, not only in Pakistan, but in many, many countries, because people ask all kinds of questions. They now think that they might—the vaccine programs might be actually spy operations.

    This story was well-reported in the past, particularly by the Times; why the silence now that the problem has been declared an international emergency?

    #oubli #New_york_times

    • The C.I.A.’s Deadly Ruse in Pakistan
      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/opinion/the-cias-deadly-ruse-in-pakistan.html?_r=0

      The C.I.A.’s ruse involved phony door-to-door solicitations by a physician promising to deliver hepatitis B immunizations; his real purpose was to confirm bin Laden’s suspected hiding place. The ploy helped fuel a militant backlash against immunization workers, and as many as 60 health workers and police officers have since been killed.

      Meanwhile, polio is on the rise, with Pakistan accounting for 66 of the 82 cases reported so far this year by the World Health Organization. Last year, there were 93 cases of polio in Pakistan, where the health organization warns that the disease is endemic, as it is in Afghanistan and Nigeria.

      The C.I.A. can no longer seek to “obtain or exploit DNA or other genetic material” gathered this way, according to a promise from the Obama administration. That is small comfort for those suffering the aftereffects of this ruse.

      Convincing wary parents to accept polio vaccination — and finding health workers willing to risk violence — has been made more difficult than ever.

      #mieux_vaut_tard_que_jamais

    • un argument qui va un peu dans l’autre sens : les talibans avaient déjà tué, en 2010, des médecins et humanitaires occidentaux (dont un ophtalmo qui travaillait depuis 31 ans dans la région), donc avant l’infâme opération de la CIA :

      http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2014/06/another-view-on-polio-vaccination-and-the-taliban.html

      Long before there was any CIA involvement, the Taliban and other Islamic extremists were killing vaccine teams and other healthcare workers. Several years ago, ten members of an international assistance mission were killed. The team included six Americans, one German, one Briton and four Afghans. The Taliban claimed “credit” for the murders. One Taliban leader said, “We don’t want any foreigners here. They are not our friends.” This is despite the fact that four of those killed were Afghans, and one of the Americans was an ophthalmologist who had spent thirty-one years in the region, bringing sight to thousands of impoverished villagers.

      comme dit Crawford Kilian (l’auteur de ce blog) : « the phony vaccination scheme simply gave the Taliban a new stick to beat the western dog with »

  • The CIA’s Program to Spread Polio in Pakistan is Working
    http://gawker.com/the-cias-program-to-spread-polio-in-pakistan-is-workin-510287695

    Two health-care workers were shot yesterday, one fatally, in Peshawar, Pakistan, leading the World Health Organization to suspend polio vaccinations there. Though no one has reportedly taken credit for the attack, it fits with an ongoing anti-vaccination terror campaign by the Pakistani Taliban, which believes health workers are agents of a western conspiracy. This belief is unfortunately not untrue.

  • Vaccines Get Past Taliban, Finally | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/vaccines-get-past-taliban-finally

    Over thirty thousand children in the remote Tirah area of the Khyber Agency, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Northern Pakistan, have waited four years for protection from polio, a viral disease that is sometimes referred to as ‘infantile paralysis’ due to its crippling effects on children.
    (...)
    Up until this year, children in all seven FATA agencies have been the worst victims of the Taliban’s ban on the oral polio vaccination (OPV), which the organisation claims was a ploy by the United States to render the recipients impotent and infertile, thus strangling the growth of the Muslim population.

    #polio #santé #vaccinations #complot #afghanistan

    Est-ce que les enfants qui contracteront la polio suite à cet épisode seront comptés comme victimes de la CIA ou comme victimes des talibans ?

    cf http://seenthis.net/messages/77542 et http://seenthis.net/messages/70358

  • #Taliban leader bans polio vaccinations in protest at drone strikes | World news | guardian.co.uk
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/26/taliban-bans-polio-vaccinations

    A senior Taliban commander has effectively banned #polio eradication in one of the most troubled areas of the #Pakistan frontier in an effort to force the US to end drone strikes.

    Leaflets distributed in South Waziristan on behalf of Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (Fata) accused health workers who administer anti-polio drops of being US spies.

    “In the garb of these #vaccination campaigns, the US and its allies are running their spying networks in Fata which has brought death and destruction on them in the form of drone strikes,” the leaflet said.

    It also questioned the sincerity of international efforts to tackle the highly infectious disease.

    “On the one hand, they are killing innocent children in drone strikes, while on the other hand they are saving their lives by vaccinating them,” the printed note said.

  • Taliban halts polio vaccinations over drone strikes | Nature
    http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/06/taliban-halts-polio-vaccinations-over-drone-strikes.html

    #Taliban leaders in #Pakistan are blocking a #polio #vaccination campaign that was to target 161,000 children in North Waziristan.

    The Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur is demanding that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) halt #drone strikes, which have heavily targeted the mountainous region, according to a story in the New York Times. The move could prove a setback for the global initiative to eradicate polio, which aims to stop polio transmission globally by the end of 2012 but is unlikely to meet that deadline. (see ‘Polio’s last stand‘)

    #santé

  • #CIA organised fake #vaccination drive to get Osama bin Laden’s family DNA | World news | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vaccinations-osama-bin-ladens-dna

    The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader’s family, a Guardian investigation has found.

    #ben_laden

    • It is not known exactly how the doctor hoped to get DNA from the vaccinations, although nurses could have been trained to withdraw some blood in the needle after administrating the drug.

      [...]

      A nurse known as Bakhto, whose full name is Mukhtar Bibi, managed to gain entry to the Bin Laden compound to administer the vaccines. According to several sources, the doctor, who waited outside, told her to take in a handbag that was fitted with an electronic device. It is not clear what the device was, or whether she left it behind. It is also not known whether the CIA managed to obtain any Bin Laden DNA, although one source suggested the operation did not succeed.

      Mukhtar Bibi, who was unaware of the real purpose of the vaccination campaign, would not comment on the programme.

      Rarement vu un article de science fiction avec autant de phrases commençant par « on ne sait pas si... ». Pour en arriver à un témoin qui n’était au courant de rien mais qui refuse de commenter (au sujet de ce dont elle était unaware à l’insu de son plein gré).

      La dernière phrase est d’un professionnalisme qui force le respect :

      The CIA refused to comment on the vaccination plot.

      (Je crois qu’on peut dire la même chose pour Roswell.)

      C’est du Jean-Claude Vandamme, cet article. :-))