CIA fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan

Common card · No. 259599

During the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, the CIA ran a covert operation utilizing a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Pakistan to illicitly collect DNA samples from bin Laden's suspected family. The CIA allegedly recruited local physician Shakil Afridi to administer hepatitis B vaccines, and compared the collected DNA with the DNA of bin Laden's sister, who died in Boston in 2010. The program was ultimately unsuccessful in locating bin Laden. It led to the arrest of Shakil Afridi, and was widely ridiculed as undermining public health. The program is credited with increasing vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan and a rise in violence against healthcare workers for being perceived as spies. The rise in vaccine hesitancy following the program led to the re-emergence of polio in Pakistan, with Pakistan having by far the largest number of polio cases in the world by 2014.

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