The blast which killed five policemen while they were off to perform escort duty for vaccinators as they went to a village in Bajaur district itself showed the vaccinators need protection, as did the blast in Bannu, in which two policemen were killed. Of course, it showed the need for at least a modicum of secrecy about what is a very public activity by its very nature. Without knowing where the vaccinators’ schedule, and the probable route to be used by their security detail, the IED used could not have been planted. However, the occurrence of the blast does not only show that anti-vaxxers have the capacity to make such attacks, but the issue of polio vaccines may be slipping under the radar in the maelstrom of terrorism directed at the coming elections.
While election security is very important, two things must not be lost sight of. First, the same forces which are spreading terrorism, which is resurgent, are anti-vaxxers. Therefore, the rise in general terrorism will be accompanied by the rise in such attacks on vaccination teams. Second, whoever wins the coming elections, will also have to deal with the polio problem. That it cannot be handled except by mass vaccination campaigns must be acknowledged. It must also be admitted that there is a problem in the region. Only Pakistan and Afghanistan have reported cases of polio, six each last year. There seems to be only one area, consisting of contiguous areas in the two countries, which are reporting these cases. So virulent is the opposition to the vaccine, that cops are seen as fair game, even before the4y begin escorting the vaccinators.
The caretakers have now got the bother of providing security, but they need to ask themselves how much effort they have put into reaching and vaccinating the last ‘zero dose’ children. The purpose of a caretaker government is to make sure that the wheels of government keep moving. While the PTI and PDM governments cannot be said to have prioritized the issue, at least they did not reverse the policy. The caretakers should have been more proactive, and instead of trying to revive the economy, should have worked harder on breaking the transmission chain. It is worrisome for the future of our children that the wild poliovirus is still being found.
