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| Africa: West |
| Allah’s Polio Plan |
| 2003-10-24 |
| EFL LAGOS, Nigeria -- Squeezing droppers into the mouths of tearful toddlers, health workers launched an emergency drive Friday to vaccinate Nigerians against polio as a spreading outbreak threatened worldwide efforts to eradicate the disease. Teams raced to immunize 15 million African children at immediate risk -- a four-day effort impeded by rumors among Muslim fundamentalists that the vaccine was part of a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and render Muslims infertile. "The Western world has never wished Muslims well," said Yakubu Husseini, a 20-year-old teacher coming out of Friday prayers in the northern city of Kano. "Why should they expect us to believe that vaccines they make these days are not another frontier to wage war against Muslims?" Fine, make your own. Three predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria -- Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara -- have either delayed or refused permission for the vaccination drive, with Zamfara demanding proof the vaccine is safe, something U.N. officials say has been repeatedly supplied. Failure of previous vaccine initiatives in northern Nigeria have aided the disease’s spread internationally, recently leading to the crippling of nearly a dozen children in at least four other West African nations -- Ghana, Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso -- according to the U.N. World Health Organization. Nigeria currently has 192 known cases, several of them in Lagos state, where the disease was previously thought to have been wiped out. The Nigerian outbreak started in Kano state during the summer. Experts blame insufficient coverage during mass polio campaigns and routine treatment. In some areas only 16 percent of children were immunized during a campaign last year. The WHO says 15 million children are at risk regionally in the current outbreak. In Kano, where state officials said Friday they were delaying the vaccine drive without explaining why, a group of men leaving the city’s main mosque discussed the decision. "Allah knows better than all Western powers combined," said Ya’u Kabir, a 26-year-old Muslim theology student. "He has guided the Muslim community since the time of old. This he did without immunization. We do not need it." Easy to say until it strikes a child you know. Give them a Darwin award. This is a culture that is embracing natural selection. |
| Posted by:Tom |
| #10 And this guy is a teacher? Good grief, how bloody stupid can you get? |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2003-10-25 6:32:19 AM |
| #9 Polio vaccines an attempt to spread HIV? Oh puh-leeze. Can you say "paranoid?" |
| Posted by: Korora 2003-10-25 12:18:44 AM |
| #8 I'd say let their stupidity be the end of them, but, sadly, having an unvaccinated population puts everyone in danger. Bastards. I hope all the imams catch it and die. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-10-24 10:14:30 PM |
| #7 Meanwhile we Zionist lackeys have eliminated polio in our degenerate society. |
| Posted by: Denny 2003-10-24 9:45:46 PM |
| #6 Teams raced to immunize 15 million African children at immediate risk -- a four-day effort impeded by rumors among Muslim fundamentalists that the vaccine was part of a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and render Muslims infertile. Damn, this is so useless. If this is how these asswipes want to live, then fine. Stop the aid, terminate all flights, transport, and trade into their part of the globe, and wait until every last one of them are dead, DEAD, DEAD. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-10-24 9:45:43 PM |
| #5 So flippin' sad. I've got a couple of ex-polio patients in my clinic at work, and they are crippled in ways I wouldn't wish on anyone. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-10-24 9:45:09 PM |
| #4 Darwin Awards.... the winner please. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2003-10-24 9:06:57 PM |
| #3 A good idea, spread the rumor that vaccination is a Zionist plot to destroy Islam and hope that people believe it. |
| Posted by: LC 2003-10-24 9:00:35 PM |
| #2 Yeah, and he's a teacher, for crissakes. Gee, I wonder where they get it from??? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-24 8:06:26 PM |
| #1 "The Western world has never wished Muslims well," said Yakubu Husseini, a 20-year-old teacher coming out of Friday prayers in the northern city of Kano. "Why should they expect us to believe that vaccines they make these days are not another frontier to wage war against Muslims?" We dont need to. We canot compete with your own stupidity...... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2003-10-24 7:15:58 PM |