It is almost inevitable that new technologies are opposed by some people. Nuclear energy, microwave ovens, pasteurization, genetically modified foods and vaccinations are classic examples. The first smallpox vaccine was produced from material taken from cows that had been afflicted by cowpox, a similar condition. People feared that somehow they would take on cow-like properties if they were vaccinated. Cartoonists fed the anti-vaccination frenzy with drawings of little cows poking out of bodily orifices. Of course people’s fear of becoming cowish from vaccination was ridiculous, and today we chuckle at such notions. After all, those silly episodes took place over two hundred years ago when people’s understanding of science was quite minimal. Surely, such nonsensical notions couldn’t blossom today, right? Wrong! Some of the accusations against vaccination today outdo the comical eighteenth century criticisms. What we have seen take place in Nigeria in the last few years is absolutely astounding. Campaigns have been organized against allowing children to be vaccinated against polio! This terrible disease has been virtually eliminated in developed countries by vaccination, but is still a problem in some parts of Africa, particularly Nigeria. The World Health Organization has made major efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria but has run up against ferocious opposition in some areas.
This opposition has has nothing to do with the fear that the vaccine may have side effects or that it may not protect against the disease. It has to do with absurd allegations that the vaccination program is really designed to wipe out some segments of the Nigerian population, particularly Muslims. Here is what the scare-mongering sounds like. “We believe that modern-day Hitlers have deliberately adulterated the oral polio vaccines with anti-fertility drugs and contaminated it with certain viruses which are known to cause HIV and AIDS.” And the scary part is that this wasn’t said by some uneducated numbskull, it was stated by physician Datti Ahmed who is chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria. It is hard to know how such nonsense arises but it probably has to do with the fact that vaccines are made by American companies and there is must distrust of anything American in Nigeria, probably triggered by unfounded allegations that Pfizer tested drugs in Nigeria without making people aware of the risks. How could a medical doctor spread such nonsense? And why? It is unfathomable. If anyone was trying to harm the population, it was he and his sick ilk. And it was not only the children of parents who believed the absurdity and kept their children from being vaccinated who paid the price, it was also innocents in neighbouring countries. In 2004, polio spread from Nigeria to neighbouring countries. It is difficult to know how to counter such opposition to a tried and tested and effective medical intervention, especially given that some in Nigeria still believe that polio is spread by an evil spirit. It is truly sad when children suffer the consequences of adults’ bigotry and stupidity.
