Pakistan Archives - Humanosphere

Pakistan

A renewed push to ban spies from overeas health and aid work |

: Is it foreign aid or covert aid?; Flickr, johanoomen

Co-authored by Tom Murphy

The latest assassination of health workers vaccinating kids against polio in Pakistan may be the tipping point.

Or not.

It remains to be seen if a new surge of efforts — a letter of protest from leading public health experts, a petition — asking the Obama Administration to prohibit spies from pretending to be overseas aid and health workers will force a change in policy.

Such protests didn’t even garner an official response the last time.

When it was learned in mid-2011 that the CIA had conducted a fake vaccination scheme in Pakistan aimed at gathering evidence to locate the then still-alive-and-in-hiding Osama Bin Laden, many in the global health and humanitarian community (including Humanosphere) cried foul and predicted a lot of collateral damage.

The problem, said 200-plus aid groups in a letter of protest sent by Interaction, was not just that this would undermine international vaccination projects in Pakistan, which it arguably did in this nation with one of the world’s highest rates of polio and other infectious diseases.

Many experts said it would more broadly undermine trust and credibility for all humanitarian work – and likely endanger aid workers. Many of these tragic predictions have since come true, prompting many in the global health, aid and development community to push again for policy prohibitions against such schemes.

“Public health programs overseas offer a very special opportunity … as a bridge to creating peace and mutual understanding,” said Howard Frumkin, dean of the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and a signatory to the letter of protest sent by leading health academics to President Obama. Unlike many other kinds of aid and assistance programs with inherent political or economic complications, Frumkin said, health initiatives done correctly overseas can forge intimate bonds of trust and respect for life that transcend politics.

“This is why it’s so important not to subvert the credibility and integrity of these kind of health programs,” he said. “The recent killings in Pakistan only underline the importance of keeping our intelligence activities separate from our health aid and assistance work.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Brett Keller, Charles Kenny, CIA, foreign aid, Howard Frumkin, humanitarian, Obama Administration, Pakistan, public health, vaccination

September 27, 2012 | 11:55 AM | By Tom Paulson |

We must end polio – if only so Bill Gates can talk about something else |

That sounds flip. But it’s not meant to undermine the global campaign to eradicate polio or (continue to) irritate the media folks at the Gates Foundation. It’s meant to underline the frustration I assume Bill Gates and many other advocates of this important global health goal must feel, even if they don’t say so.

News analysis (of sorts)

Today, at the United Nations, Bill Gates, heads of state from the polio-plagued countries Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan, the head of the UN, the fiesty chief of the World Health Organization and other ‘global luminaries’ today repeated the call to push on with the ongoing effort to rid the world of polio.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the world is at a decisive moment and that he has made polio a “top priority” for his second term.

“Failure to eradicate polio would be unforgivable…. Failure is not an option,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization. India was recently declared polio free, a major achievement for the campaign.

Gates Foundation
Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes in Nigeria for polio vaccination

“The evidence is clear: if we all do our part, we can and will end this disease. But we must act quickly and give ourselves the very best chance to succeed,” said Gates, who had earlier explained on his personal blog why he flew 3,000 miles to speak for three minutes at this somewhat predictable event. “When we defeat polio, it will motivate us to aim for other great health and development milestones.”

Yeah, yeah. Same old stuff. But that last statement by Gates is key.

Chances are, this particular dog-and-pony show among all the other UN dog-and-pony shows — despite the alleged luminaries — may get only passing notice because, well, most people don’t really care about polio. That’s why they bring out luminaries – to get you to pay attention.

(NOTE: The first news report I saw on this gathering of luminosity was an AP story in which the reporter at the polio event asked Gates what he thinks of the new Windows 8 operating system. Gates said, “Very exciting.” No word if the journalist asked about polio….) Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Afghanistan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, eradication, Nigeria, Pakistan, polio, United Nations, World Health Organization

September 26, 2011 | 12:08 PM | By Tom Paulson |

Polio spreading from Pakistan to China |

UNICEF

Child receiving oral polio vaccine

This is a discouraging reminder that global health is truly global, especially when it comes to infectious disease.

As NPR’s Joe Neel reports today, Pakistan’s failure to eliminate polio appears to have spilled over into China and threatens to spread even wider. Neel reports:

The World Health Organization says the rates of polio in Pakistan have caused it to rate as “high” the risk of further international spread of the wild poliovirus from Pakistan … there is particular concern with large population movements around the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Nov. 4-9.

Here are some other similar reports from Inter Press and the Washington Post, noting that this strain of the virus is more dangerous in that it is more easily spread.

The Economist says a “surge against polio” is needed now if the long-sought goal of polio eradication is to be achieved. A week or so ago, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation put out this video urging the international community to finish the job and eradicate polio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug_O7QjyQlI

Why is polio so especially difficult to control in Pakistan?

Poverty and lack of adequate health services are two reasons. But much poorer countries have succeeded in ridding themselves of this disabling and once rampant disease.

Conflict in Pakistan is also part of the problem. It’s difficult territory for humanitarian organizations. And foreign health campaigns may be especially mistrusted these days — given the U.S. and the West’s already strained relationship with Pakistan and this unfortunate CIA “fake vaccination” ploy done there a while ago.

FILED UNDER: Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pakistan, polio, vaccines

August 9, 2011 | 11:00 AM | By Guest |

How the rush to help can thwart best intentions of foreign aid |

Despite the best intentions, foreign aid often goes awry in countries overwhelmed by war.

Jack Healy, writing in Monday’s New York Times, offered a vivid, and depressing, example of governments rushing in to help people without carefully weighing all of the issues, in his story of the small village of Alice-Ghan in Afghanistan.

“ALICE-GHAN, Afghanistan — This tiny village rose from the rocky soil with great hopes and $10 million in foreign aid, a Levittown of identical mud-walled houses built to shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of Afghans set adrift by war and flight.

“Five years later, the village of Alice-Ghan and those good intentions are tilting toward ruin. Most of its 1,100 houses have been abandoned to vandals and the lashing winds. With few services or jobs within reach, hundreds of residents have moved away — sometimes even to the slums and temporary shelters they had sought to escape…

“The settlement, a little more than an hour’s drive north of the capital, Kabul, on the border with Parwan Province, is one of 60 scattered across the country. It has become a demonstration of the miscalculations and obstacles that have thwarted so many similar efforts to tackle huge problems like poverty, hunger, illness and dislocation in Afghanistan. “

Wikimedia Commons photo

The tents of displaced Afghans still dot the countryside.

The problems facing the U.S., Australian and Afghan government attempts in Alice-Ghan include a lack of basic services like electricity and running water, cultural misunderstandings and corruption.

These problems are similar to those elsewhere, like in Iraq, which resulted in the loss of millions, if not billions, of dollars and contributed to the enormous suffering of people there and also helped drive at least 2 million Iraqis out of the country.

Michael Shank, writing in The Guardian last month, summed up the problem with corruption and other misguided efforts regarding foreign aid rather well: Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Afghanistan, foreign aid, Iraq, Pakistan

July 14, 2011 | 1:22 PM | By Tom Paulson |

Three reasons why CIA faked vaccines may cause contagion of damage |

Flickr, johanoomen

New Action Thriller: From UNICEF with Love?

Now that the CIA has acknowledged running a deceptive, if not totally fake, vaccination program in Pakistan as part of the effort months ago to hunt down Osama bin Laden, here are three reasons why this episode is prompting an angry response by those who work against global poverty and disease:

This isn’t just about vaccines — about fighting terrorism vs fighting polio.
Health workers and aid workers overseas have to be seen as neutral and independent if they are to operate effectively and safely.
National security isn’t achieved just by hunting and killing bad guys. It’s also achieved through humanitarian efforts, aid efforts and other forms of international collaboration based on mutual trust.

So let’s review where we are so far with the strange case of “The Immunizer of Abbottabad.”

After The Guardian on Monday first revealed this bizarre scheme aimed at collecting DNA from bin Laden family members, the CIA apparently has confirmed to the Washington Post that it did set up the vaccination program in northern Pakistan. Here’s what some anonymous official reportedly told the newspaper:

A senior U.S. official said the vaccine campaign was conducted by medical professionals and should not be construed as a “fake public health effort.”

“People need to put this into some perspective,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “The vaccination campaign was part of the hunt for the world’s top terrorist, and nothing else.”

“If the United States hadn’t shown this kind of creativity, people would be scratching their heads asking why it hadn’t used all tools at its disposal to find bin Laden.”

Actually, many seem to be scratching their heads asking how the Central Intelligence Agency (given its middle name) came up with such a far-fetched scheme — it doesn’t appear to have worked — and how it can argue with a straight face that this was, in addition to a covert op, a legitimate vaccination program.

To begin with, just giving kids a real Hepatitis B vaccine doesn’t mean it’s not fake public health. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Alanna Shaikh, CIA, James Fallows, national security, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, vaccines

July 12, 2011 | 11:03 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Did CIA undermine global health by faking vaccines in hunt for Bin Laden? |

by hitthatswitch, Flickr

One of the chronic problems the international community has with almost every disease-fighting campaign has been the need to overcome mistrust — mistrust of government, of foreign health workers or outsider do-gooders in general.

This is, for a variety of reasons, especially true of vaccines.

So many worry that such global health efforts will suffer from the revelation, reported first in The Guardian and later by the New York Times and others, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) set up a fake vaccination program in Pakistan in order to collect DNA samples. Says The Guardian:

The CIA organised a fake vaccination program 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.

The CIA has refused to confirm or deny these reports.

Most of the media reports tend to focus on issues of terrorism, foreign policy and the increasingly strained relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan. There was little attention, initially anyway, given to the possibility that this CIA ruse could also seriously undermine a key tool in the worldwide battle against disease. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Brett Keller, Chris Albon, CIA, Pakistan, polio, vaccination

May 3, 2011 | 9:50 AM | By Tom Paulson |

With Bin Laden’s death, foreign aid to Pakistan under the microscope |

Flickr, k-ideas

Now that Osama Bin Laden is dead, many are taking a hard look at the massive U.S. program of foreign aid to Pakistan – about $3 billion a year, half of that to pay them for helping us fight terrorism.

I hope they’ll take a hard look not just at what we’re getting for the money but why we give it.

What exactly are we trying do with what we call foreign aid?

We actually give very little, per capita and compared to most wealthy nations. And we seem to be giving it mostly for political reasons.

When Egypt erupted in popular protest against dictatorship, many Americans (including, apparently some members of Congress!) were surprised to learn that Egypt was the second or third largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid — and that most of that “aid” went to buy military supplies. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, foreign aid, foreign policy, global health, Obama Administration, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan

March 11, 2011 | 3:39 PM | By Tom Paulson |

Disaster in Japan … and Haiti, Pakistan, Congo, Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali |

Flickr, doegox

We are all focused on the disaster in Japan right now, as we should be.

But what about the other, bigger disasters?

The massive earthquake, tsunami and current concern about damage to a Japanese nuclear power plant are the top news stories today. The quake was huge, the fifth largest in the last century. President Obama said today the U.S. is “marshaling forces” to help Japan deal with the catastrophe.

Local relief organizations like World Vision and Mercy Corps have put the Japanese quake-tsunami on the “front page” of their websites even though it is unlikely either organization will be doing much in response. I talked to both organizations and they are standing by ready to help, but both said it is possible they will not be needed.

Japan can largely take care of itself. World Vision and Mercy Corps take care of those who can’t. Continue reading →