It didn’t help that the health minister of the most populous province of Punjab expressed skepticism. When the vaccination had barely started, warned said that anyone who got an injection did so “at their own risk.”
But resistance to the corona pepper is greatest in the hinterland, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where terrorist groups like the Taliban have been opposing vaccination programs for years. This makes Pakistan one of the few countries in the world where polio has not yet been eradicated.
“Terror groups regularly attack vaccine workers,” says Hayat. Local leaders are spreading stories that vaccines are being used by Bill Gates to insert a microchip into your body and that vaccination will stop you from having children. safe.”
CIA fake vaccines
The mistrust stems in part from heavily criticized CIA espionage tactics. Around 2010, the US intelligence agency launched a fake vaccination program under the guise of an anti-hepatitis campaign in Abbottabad. The Americans wanted to find DNA traces that could be traced back to the suspected hiding place of Osama bin Laden, at that time the world’s most wanted terrorist.
When that story came out, the Taliban issued a fatwa against vaccinations. That was years ago, but the damage is permanent, says Hayat.
“That incident fuels new conspiracy theories. People had faith in that hepatitis program and it has been violated. They can now say to anyone: you see, there they go again with their so-called covid vaccines.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan is using various strategies to speed up the rate of vaccination. The well-known television imam Molana Tariq Jamil plays a striking role in this. In the spring of 2020, he spread the message that only Allah could deliver the country from corona. But after he became ill with the virus himself in December, he was over.
Now he no longer limits himself to praying, but also preaches the need to wear face masks and keep his distance:
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