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The CIA’s efforts to capture Osama bin Laden via a fake vaccination drive in Pakistan led to a rise in vaccine hesitancy in the years after the scheme was revealed.
In 2011, it was reported that the CIA had organised a fake vaccination drive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, reportedly administering hepatitis B vaccines to babies, while obtaining DNA samples to compare with that of bin Laden’s sister, who died in the US the year before. The CIA was attempting to find a child who was related to bin Laden, in an effort to pin down his whereabouts.
In vaccines we trust: The impact of the CIA vaccine ruse in Pakistan
Mass vaccination programmes, and the problems of trust surrounding them, have been brought sharply into focus by COVID-19. In July 2011, the Pakistani public learnt that the CIA had used a vaccination campaign as cover to capture Osama Bin Laden. The Taliban leveraged on this information and launched an anti-vaccine propaganda campaign to discredit vaccines and vaccination workers. Monica Martinez-Bravo tells Tim Phillips about her research into the long-term effects of this episode on vaccination behaviour in Pakistan.
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