Was Bin Laden Vaccine Plot Worth All the Risk?

[tekisui]

Source: Guardian

The revelation that the CIA used a covert vaccination programme to attempt to obtain DNA from the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan could have a profound impact on NGOs, vaccination drives and indeed on global healthcare policies.

It politicises medical aid and will fuel anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, which risk rolling back the successes in programmes such as the multibillion-dollar polio eradication initiative.

According to reports, the CIA recruited Dr Shakil Afridi, a top-ranking medical professional, to carry out a regional vaccination programme for the purpose of confirming whether Osama bin Laden was indeed in Abbottabad. In April, nurses were able to gain access to the compound under the pretext of providing a childhood hepatitis B vaccine.

While medical care is frequently used as a diplomatic tool to foster good relations, the use of a covert medical programme by a foreign intelligence agency takes the politicisation of medical care to a new level.

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/13/bin-laden-vaccine-plot-cia

[ck4829]

1. That wasn't the brightest idea they had

The Taliban in the region likes telling people that medical personnel are out to sterilize their children with anti-polio vaccines, I know that several people have died.

This could just some more ammo for the Taliban and an opportunity for polio to get a second wind. Swell.

[Bragi]

2. I believe it was not at all worth the risk

The CIA could have found other ways to identify the people who were apparently under house arrest in the compound owned by the Pakistani ISI where OBL was held.

There is a principle of humanitarianism in war that says you do not use health care as a weapon. The CIA knew this rule and didn't care.

Their actions will likely make continuation of the already-difficult and controversial polio eradication immunization campaign in Pakistan impossible.

People there won't know if they are actually being vaccinated, or if it is a CIA operation, as has been rumored in the past.

Potentially, this means there will be more polio outbreaks, more deaths, more crippled kids, more need for vaccination programs, and less ability to do them.

How many children will die or be crippled as a result? Hard to estimate, but I predict there will be casualties of this callousness for a long time into the future.

Personally, I'm not a lawyer, but this disregard of citizen health should be, and maybe is, a war crime. I find it to be an unnecessary and reprehensible act.

[tekisui]

3. kick

[Maru Kitteh]

4. NO. It pisses me off in that it will fuel resistance to aid and vaccine programs. Children will die

stupidly needless deaths. They absolutely should have found another way.