IT started with a rumour. As province-wide anti-polio efforts were under way in KP, around 75 students from a school in Badhber complained they had headaches, nausea and stomach aches after being administered polio drops. They were admitted in the Hayatabad Medical Complex, but were quickly discharged as doctors declared their condition stable. What had happened was likely a case of mass hysteria, given the fears that have been drilled in the population’s mind about polio drops for years. A video of a man at the hospital claiming the vaccines were causing children to faint — and then, almost with comical effect, telling healthy children to ‘fall asleep’ for the cameras — began to do the rounds. It was clear what we were seeing was a hoax, the agenda of diseased mindsets. In another video, the same man claims some of the children have died. The man has now been arrested, but the damage is done. The fake news spread like wildfire. It is disheartening that one barefaced lie appears to have sent Pakistan’s anti-polio efforts back, possibly by decades.

Outraged parents from school set a basic health unit on fire, smashing its windows and doors, while thousands of others filled KP’s hospitals, panicking that their children would meet the same ‘fate’. The events of a single day led to an 85pc rise in vaccine refusals across the province: 700,000 families refused to administer drops to their children. (During last month’s anti-polio drive, the number of refusals was 57,000.) In Peshawar, some 164,000 families refused have their children vaccinated. On TV channels, charlatan intellectuals spoke against vaccinations, endorsing ideas by conspiracy theorists that have long been refuted, while a popular daily’s headline declared that hundreds of children fell sick after being administered polio drops in KP. No questions asked, no research undertaken, no evidence of critical engagement, the news was consumed and reproduced as fact.

And then the worst happened — it always does when disinformation campaigns and fear-mongering are given free rein. A police officer responsible for protecting polio teams was gunned down in Bannu, followed by the killing of another police officer in Buner the next day. The day after that, a young woman health worker was killed in the line of duty. While the rest of the world has vanquished the polio virus, Pakistan lives with the shame of being one of three countries that have been unable to eradicate it due to obscurantist beliefs and a culture of paranoia and conspiracy that is so ingrained. In this critical time, disinformation and lies that endanger the lives of so many cannot be tolerated. Authorities must remain vigilant of those who espouse anti-polio propaganda — be it through mosques or the media. And security should be beefed up for polio teams and their protectors instead of suspending the polio campaign, as the authorities have done.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2019