ROP AT Work. Taliban Assassinate Five Female Polio Workers

[bitterlyclingin]

Meanwhile, here at home we have a pres whose national security guiding light is "Let the Muslim win" There are some who remember what happened the last time a Western Democracy had a Neville Chamberlain in charge. Most American's long term memory, unfortunately, only extends as far back as their last BM.

Pakistani Taliban Assassinate 5 Female Polio Vaccination Workers… | Weasel Zippers

 

[WillowTree]

Jonas Salk was a Jew!

 

[bitterlyclingin]

Jonas Salk was a Jew!

One of my closest female friends, and confidantes, is a Jew, while I am very much RC. So what? Let me tell you about mass at St Martin de Porres RC Church a week ago Sunday. No I won't, saved that for another time.

The Chinese populations that found themselves under Islam's sway were all converted to Islam in two generations. The men were all killed, the women became concubines. Do you realize how close America is to returning to the Eighth Century with Barack Obama as president?

Syrian Jihadi Leader To Christians: Convert To Islam Or Die… | Weasel Zippers

 

[bitterlyclingin]

Now this from a man who wouldn't be capable of finding an Iranian Nuke if they somehow managed to drop a completed one on his toe.

Egyptian Opposition Leader And Former UN Official Mohamed ElBaradei Rips Obama Admin For Backing Muslim Brotherhood “Thugs”… | Weasel Zippers

 

[g5000]

Meanwhile, here at home we have a pres whose national security guiding light is "Let the Muslim win" There are some who remember what happened the last time a Western Democracy had a Neville Chamberlain in charge. Most American's long term memory, unfortunately, only extends as far back as their last BM.

Pakistani Taliban Assassinate 5 Female Polio Vaccination Workers… | Weasel Zippers

Congratulations. You have managed to turn a horrible collection of murders into a partisan paroxysm, blaming the whole thing on Obama.

I suppose you will blame the next big solar flare on him, and the next earthquake, and when your grandmother falls down the stairs.

I heard Obama watched the whole thing from a drone.

.

 

[mjollnir]

Meanwhile, here at home we have a pres whose national security guiding light is "Let the Muslim win" There are some who remember what happened the last time a Western Democracy had a Neville Chamberlain in charge. Most American's long term memory, unfortunately, only extends as far back as their last BM.

Pakistani Taliban Assassinate 5 Female Polio Vaccination Workers… | Weasel Zippers

Congratulations. You have managed to turn a horrible collection of murders into a partisan paroxysm, blaming the whole thing on Obama.

I suppose you will blame the next big solar flare on him, and the next earthquake, and when your grandmother falls down the stairs.

I heard Obama watched the whole thing from a drone.

.

He was sworn in on a cookbook!!!!

 

[RoadVirus]

Meanwhile, here at home we have a pres whose national security guiding light is "Let the Muslim win" There are some who remember what happened the last time a Western Democracy had a Neville Chamberlain in charge. Most American's long term memory, unfortunately, only extends as far back as their last BM.

Pakistani Taliban Assassinate 5 Female Polio Vaccination Workers… | Weasel Zippers

Apparently the Paki Talibunnies want to get polio and die. Fine with me.

 

[waltky]

Bill Gates gonna end polio...

Bill Gates: The world can defeat polio
27 January 2013 - Vaccination is key to controlling the disease

Glance at the latest figures for polio incidence and it would appear that the world is within touching distance of eradicating the disease. Last year there were just 205 cases of naturally occurring poliovirus compared with 650 cases in 2011 and a staggering 350,000 a quarter of a century ago. There are now three countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria - where transmission of the disease has never been halted compared to 125 countries in the late 1980s. India has been polio-free for two years - a remarkable achievement. This week the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will deliver the annual BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in which he will spell out his commitment to ridding the world of this dread infectious disease which can cause paralysis and even death within hours. Bill Gates is the single most influential voice in global health, so when he turns his attention to an issue, it is worth listening.

Through the Gates Foundation, Bill and his wife Melinda have already given away nearly $30 billion of their fortune and there are tens of billions more in the pipeline. He has spoken to me previously of his passionate belief in the power of vaccines and his determination to defeat polio. In his lecture Mr Gates will liken the pace of innovation in computers with the fight against polio: . He will say: "In the late 1970s we had a dream of giving everybody access to computer technology - a vision of a computer on every desktop. Now there is a computer in every pocket. "The pace of innovation keeps getting faster. The same is true of polio. "It was first recognised at least 4,000 years ago, but it was just 200 years ago we figured out it's contagious - just 100 years ago we learned it's a virus. Just 50 years ago we developed the vaccine to prevent it. "Just 25 years ago we resolved to eradicate it. And so on."

But Mr Gates will also acknowledge that the final push against polio is proving extremely difficult: "I can say without reservation that the last mile is not only the hardest mile; it's also much harder than I expected," he said. The killing of nine health workers in Pakistan last month was a shocking reminder of the challenges facing those trying to chase down the virus and protect every last child. I have written before of the hurdles facing immunisation teams. Part of polio's danger is its utter portability - it can be spread across borders by one infected traveller, who can continue to shed virus for weeks on end. Only last week an emergency vaccination programme was ordered in Cairo after samples of the polio virus were found in sewage - the strain matches that in southern Pakistan.

The oral polio vaccine can - in very rare cases - trigger polio. The WHO says this happens in one in 2.5 million first doses of vaccine. Over the past decade 15 billion doses of polio vaccine drops have been given and there have been 200 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus. But with naturally occurring polio cases now so low there is a minority which claims the oral live vaccine is causing significant harm. Dr Jacob Puliyel, a paediatrician in Delhi, wrote in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics last year that "the polio eradication programme epitomises nearly everything that is wrong with donor-funded 'disease specific' vertical projects, at the cost of investments in community-oriented primary care". Dr Puliyel said the money spent on fighting polio in India would have been put to better use on water, sanitation and routine immunisation.

Now or never

 

[Lakhota]

Obama is watching us all in "real time"...

 

[BlindBoo]

Who are you casting as Neville Chamberlain?

The Unmaned Drone Bomber of Pakistan?

 

[waltky]

Terrorists attack UN-backed polio team, Pakistani policeman killed...

Policeman protecting Pakistani polio team killed
January 29, 2013 — Gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a U.N.-backed vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, the police said.

The attack took place as dozens of polio workers — including several women — were going door to door to vaccinate children in Gullu Dheri village of Swabi district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said senior police officer Izhar Shah. None of the polio workers the police officer was protecting were hurt in the attack, he said. "The polio workers were terrified and immediately went back to their homes after the attack," Shah told The Associated Press. "The anti-polio drive in that village has been suspended." Some Islamic militants oppose the vaccination campaign, accuse health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and claim the polio vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Pakistan is one of the few remaining places where polio is still rampant.

In a separate incident in the northwest, a man wounded a polio worker with an axe. The attacks occurred on the second day of a three-day campaign against polio that was launched by the provincial government. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting in Gullu Dheri, but suspicion fell on militants. Suspicion of vaccination campaigns heightened considerably after it became known that a Pakistani doctor helped in the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden. The physician, Shakil Afridi, ran a hepatitis vaccination campaign on behalf of the CIA to collect blood samples from bin Laden's family at a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan's northwest, where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida leader in May 2011. The samples were intended to help the U.S. match the family's DNA to verify bin Laden's presence in the garrison city.

In the recently released film "Zero Dark Thirty" about the search for bin Laden, a short scene shows a man going to the compound where bin Laden was hiding as part of a vaccination campaign. But in the movie, it's portrayed as an anti-polio campaign instead of anti-hepatitis. In December, gunmen killed nine polio workers in similar attacks across Pakistan, prompting authorities to suspend the vaccination campaign in the troubled areas. The U.N. also suspended its field operations in December as a result of the attacks. They have since resumed some activities, said Michael Coleman, a spokesman with UNICEF's polio campaign.

The latest campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was launched Monday to give oral drops to children who had missed it the first time around. Pakistan is one of only three countries where the crippling disease is endemic. The virus usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions. It attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze. As many as 56 polio cases were reported in Pakistan during 2012, down from 190 the previous year, according to the United Nations. Most of the new cases in Pakistan were in the northwest, where the presence of militants makes it difficult to reach children for vaccination.

MORE

 

[bitterlyclingin]

All in a days work for Islam

Pakistani Islamists Open Fire On Another Polio Vaccination Team, Killing One? | Weasel Zippers

Meanwhile the United States has more than its share of witless f#cks. All aboard! for the Tower of Babel.

Colorado High School Has Students Recite Pledge Of Allegiance In Arabic? | Weasel Zippers

Whoever conceived and approved of this should have their heads mounted on pikes.

 

[waltky]

Another aid worker killed in Pakistan...

Pakistan polio vaccination suspended after killing
May 28,`13 -- Pakistani authorities suspended a four-day polio vaccination program Tuesday after gunmen shot dead a female polio worker and wounded another, officials said, in a blow to the U.N.-backed campaign aimed at eradicating the crippling disease from this violence-torn country.

Such attacks have made it harder for Pakistan to join the vast majority of nations declared polio-free. The two women were attacked Tuesday in Kaggawala village on the outskirts of the main northwest city of Peshawar, police officer Mushtaq Khan said. Senior police official Shafiullah Khan said two attackers on foot fired a pistol at the workers. He said police have started a search operation. Government official Habibullah Arif said the polio vaccination drive in the northwestern city of Peshawar and nearby villages has been suspended.

The four-day campaign was launched Tuesday morning, but it was halted "for security reasons and to express solidarity with the slain and injured female polio workers," he said. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest killing, but some Pakistani militants have alleged in the past that the polio workers are U.S. spies and that the vaccine makes people sterile. Reinforcing those suspicions was the disclosure that the CIA used a Pakistani doctor to run a hepatitis vaccination campaign to try to get blood samples from al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden's family before U.S. commandos killed him there in May 2011.

The World Health Organization, the U.N. agency that oversees much of the polio vaccination work in Pakistan, condemned the attack. Dr. Nima Saeed Abid, acting WHO country head for Pakistan, said the safety of his polio workers, many of whom are women, was paramount. "I hope the government will provide them with the requested security for the health workers," he said. "And after careful assessment, they should resume their activities." Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari blasted what he called a "cowardly" attack, and resolved that "the government will not permit militants to deprive our children of basic health care." He spoke before the decision to suspend the program.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio is still endemic. Health workers have made strides against the disease in recent years, but the violence threatens to reverse that progress. In December, gunmen killed nine polio workers in different parts of Pakistan. Several more workers have been killed since then, as well as police who were protecting them. The U.N. said in March that some 240,000 children had missed vaccinations since July in parts of Pakistan's tribal belt, the main sanctuary for Islamic militants, because of security concerns.

MORE

 

[ScienceRocks]

How sad...Wtf is wrong with some people?

 

[RoadVirus]

Get all polio workers out of there. Like i said: If they want to get polio and die, i say let them. No skin off my ass.

 

[waltky]

Pakistani polio prevention program succeeding despite Taliban efforts...

Pakistan may be polio free by next year: Unicef
Nov 9, 2015: Pakistan may be declared a 'non-endemic country for polio virus' by next year, a Unicef health official said on Monday citing over 85 per cent reduction in recorded polio cases in 2015, especially in the country's restive tribal areas.

Pakistan, which along with Afghanistan remains the only place where the crippling disease is still rife, registered only 36 polio cases so far this year, as compared to 306 cases recorded last year. Year 2014 is considered by health experts as the darkest year for Pakistan polio eradication programme. "Efforts to eradicate the disease have been severely hindered in recent years by militants who attacked immunisation teams and polio workers were not allowed in certain areas for administering drops," said Dr Muhammad Johar, Unicef Team Leader for Polio eradication in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

"The progress and achievement in polio eradication efforts has raised the confidence of health teams and Pakistan has set the target of complete obstruction of polio transmission in Pakistan by May 2016," Johar said, adding, "In May 2016, Pakistan may be declared as Non-Endemic country for polio virus." "Around 292,000 children from Khyber Agency, North Waziristan and South Waziristan Agencies were missed from immunisation in 2014 due to inaccessibility of health teams in these area," said Aqeel Ahmad, Media Liaison Officer, Polio Emergency Operation Center (EOC), FATA.

While in 2015, only 16,000 children have been missed in the country which is highly appreciable, Aqeel added. This achievement became possible with the support of the military, especially due to improvement in security after launching of military operation Zarb-e-Azb, said Aqeel. Johar also gave credit for reduction in polio cases to better security arrangements after launching of military operations in North Waziristan Agency and other parts of FATA including Khyber Agency. The main reason behind the rise in number of polio cases between 2005 to 2014 was inaccessibility of health teams in tribal areas where hundreds of thousands of children were missed from immunisation resulting in contamination of disease, Johar said.

Pakistan may be polio free by next year: Unicef - Times of India

 

[waltky]

Now ISIS interferring with polio child vaccination efforts in Afghanistan...

IS Hinders Polio Eradication Efforts in Afghanistan
December 11, 2015 — Polio vaccinations for tens of thousands of Afghan children are being delayed because health workers are unable to access remote regions controlled by Islamic militants including the Islamic State group.

Gula Khan Ayub, a Ministry of Public Health official, said around 100,000 children could not get vaccinated in a recent four-day polio vaccination campaign carried out in 14 eastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan due to militants' threats. The militants are blocking polio vaccination campaigns, saying the Afghan government and the West are using health workers for intelligence-gathering purposes, VOA correspondent Zabihullah Ghazi reports. Militants also are reportedly giving mostly uneducated locals misinformation about the polio efforts, saying the vaccine causes long-term fertility problems for both boys and girls, and it contains pork products, which are unlawful in Islamic jurisprudence.

"Forty thousand of our children will be left without vaccination," said the director of the public health department in Nangarhar.​

According to the World Health Organization, polio remains endemic in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, the only places in the world where the wild virus continues to circulate. The delay in vaccination efforts not only puts children at risk, but there are fears the disease will spread. Polio is spread through person-to-person contact, and one carrier can infect hundreds. The poliomyelitis virus hits the nervous system and may result in irreversible paralysis. Young children in poor rural areas with inadequate sanitation are most vulnerable.

Polio cases up

In Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, where fighting in recent months among Taliban, IS and government forces has been fierce, health workers are hamstrung. Local IS fighters have told health workers they have orders from their leaders not to allow polio vaccinations. "Forty thousand of our children will be left without vaccination," Najibullah Kamawal, the director of public health department in Nangarhar, told VOA. "Our campaign does not take place in areas affected where fighting goes on."

While some Afghan children are being vaccinated, health workers are unable to access remote regions controlled by Islamic militants.​

At least 16 polio cases have been registered by the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan. Nangarhar has the highest number of reported polio cases in the country, with four in the Achin district where IS militants have a stronghold. "We have not had vaccinations in our areas in the past or now," said Zabihullah Shinwari, a local resident. "Relevant security departments should pay attention to this issue so that the security situation gets better and children get vaccinated."

Tens of thousands of Afghan children in insecure areas may miss out on polio immunizations due to controls by Islamic militants.​

Nangarhar's provincial council has expressed concerns about the increasing number of polio cases. The council says they could cause a major health crisis if the security impediments are not properly addressed. "Fighting has continued in these areas and children have not been vaccinated during the last few years," said Zabiullah Zmaray, a member of Nangarhar provincial council. "If the security situation does not get better, vaccination teams cannot go there and polio cases will increase."

Persuading the militants

 

[waltky]

Polio returns to Pakistan...

New Cases of Polio Reported in Pakistan
March 07, 2016 — Three new cases of polio were reported in Pakistan last week, bringing the total number of worldwide polio cases this year to five — all of them in Pakistan. The country remains front and center in the global fight to eradicate the highly infectious disease from the planet.

The new cases were reported in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, as well as in Hangu and Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The first polio case of the year, reported in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, was a 3-year-old boy who had received at least seven doses of polio vaccine. “Unfortunately the child was suffering from malnutrition, and the immunity level had not built up,” said Aziz Memon, the chair of Rotary Polio Plus in Pakistan. This points to the larger problems of a weak health system, along with issues of security and internal migration due to conflict in various parts of the country or the ongoing military operation in areas bordering Afghanistan.

Either polio cases or the presence of the polio virus in the environment, determined through methods like water sample tests, have been reported in all four provinces of Pakistan. Last year, 54 of the 73 cases of polio worldwide were in Pakistan. Without eradication, health officials fear a resurgence of the disease. Memon thinks the country will have to redouble its efforts in the wake of the new cases. “We have to be very vigilant in the coming five months so that we can stop the transmission,” he said.

A girl receives polio vaccine drops at the door step of her family home in Karachi, Pakistan​

Eradication campaign

The presence of polio in Pakistan is not due to a lack of effort against it. Pakistan has been trying hard, with the help of the international community, to immunize all its children. Polio vaccination campaigns are regularly carried out in various parts of the country. More than 100,000 workers participated in an anti-polio drive last month alone. Workers went door to door, to try to get to every child, especially those who might not have seen a doctor for their regular immunization. These efforts, however, are often hampered by security concerns.

Islamist militants consider polio workers Western spies, and immunization, a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children. The CIA’s use of a vaccination campaign to try to collect DNA samples from a compound in Abbottabad to ascertain Osama Bin Laden’s presence made polio campaigns even more suspect. Attacks on polio workers increased. They have since gone down but security remains a big issue. A suicide blast outside a polio eradication center in Quetta in January killed at least 15 people. In February, gunmen shot and wounded a polio worker in Lahore.

Pakistani police officers and rescue workers gather at the site of suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan​

The government has countered by providing extra security and recruiting Muslim clerics to speak up in favor of polio vaccinations. These clerics sometimes go with the polio workers to persuade hesitant parents to allow their kids to get polio drops. Some of them have used their weekly Friday sermons to advertise support for polio vaccination. Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan have long been a place where Taliban militants strongly opposed polio vaccination campaigns. A military operation has weakened the Taliban’s hold on the territory, but major parts of it remain high risk areas for polio, according to End Polio Pakistan. Until these gaps are closed, Pakistan and the world will not be polio free.

New Cases of Polio Reported in Pakistan

 

[waltky]

Pakistan 'could beat polio in months'...

Pakistan could beat polio in months, says WHO
Mon, 16 May 2016 - Polio could be eradicated in Pakistan within months, the World Health Organisation says, as a mass vaccination drive is launched in the north-west.

Polio could be eradicated in Pakistan within months, health officials say, as a mass vaccination drive is launched. A World Health Organisation spokesman told the BBC only a handful of cases have been reported this year in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan. The two countries are the last places where polio remains endemic. It is hoped millions of children will be vaccinated over three days. Police escorts will guard against Islamist militants who oppose immunisations. "The challenges we have are both logistics and security," the WHO's representative for Pakistan, Dr Michel Thieren, told the BBC.

He said about 70,000 medical staff aimed to immunise almost 10 million children in the drive, which is taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and semi-autonomous tribal areas in the north-west, as well as in south-west Balochistan province. "They have with them 12 million doses for the coming three days," he said. "We are very close. A handful of cases [were] noticed this year - about 11 in Pakistan and I think about five in Afghanistan. "This is the lowest toll of cases in history. We expect to be within months of polio elimination in Pakistan."

A girl receives polio vaccine drops at a government dispensary in a Karachi slum​

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the WHO's expression of optimism comes after the Pakistani authorities launched repeated anti-polio drives in high-risk areas. Health teams gained access to formerly hostile regions in the north-west after the Pakistani military launched a 2014 offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan. Attacks on health workers have dropped since then, although they still remain a threat. Islamist militants oppose vaccination, saying it is a Western conspiracy to sterilise Pakistani children. In April seven policemen, three guarding polio workers, were killed in Karachi. A January bomb attack on a vaccination centre in Quetta killed 15 people. Pakistan recorded more than 300 polio cases in 2014, its highest number since 1999. The number of cases fell to 52 last year.

Polio around the world

What is polio?

Polio (poliomyelitis) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus which invades the nervous system. It mainly affects children aged under five. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and limb pain. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, and between 5-10% of those who suffer paralysis die because their breathing muscles are immobilised. Cases have fallen dramatically since polio eradication programmes were introduced; from 350,000 globally in 1988 to around 70 in 2015. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but Nigeria was removed from the list in October after a year with no new cases.

Pakistan could beat polio in months, says WHO - BBC News

 

[HUGGY]

Meanwhile, here at home we have a pres whose national security guiding light is "Let the Muslim win" There are some who remember what happened the last time a Western Democracy had a Neville Chamberlain in charge. Most American's long term memory, unfortunately, only extends as far back as their last BM.

Pakistani Taliban Assassinate 5 Female Polio Vaccination Workers… | Weasel Zippers

I think your expectations of the office of POTUS are unrealistic. Do you blame Obama when you have bad breath? Or don't make it past third base on a date?

OR maybe you enjoyed being lied and goaded into an unnecessary war or two?

The simple solution, of course, is that you can get your lazy ass over to where these monsters are doing these monstrous things and intercede yourself. When you get there just buy all the weapons you need and track down the ISIS guys.. they dress very conspicuously so it shouldn't be that difficult to find them.

The president has a full time job running THIS country so he probably can't act like Superman and zoom overseas in a few seconds to resolve these smaller conflicts as they occur.

As long as the Muslims are not murdering the hospital workers HERE I won't grade Obama as a failure on that specific accusation.

Now please don't go off the deep end and start claiming I am an Obama supporter. I think he was foolish expecting congress to automatically fall in line for him especially after they promised to destroy his presidency. He has accomplished practically nothing of his promises before moving into the White House. I agree that overall Obama has been a failure. I don't recall him promising to be the world's best super cop.