Gated Development

eported in the Lancet that the incidence of NPAFP
increased exponentially in India after the high
potency polio vaccine was introduced. 269 The
analysis by the Indian authors is that routine polio
immunisation is relatively safe but that the risks rise
with the number of doses.
The Indian authors also write that, despite the
“charade about polio eradication”, the scientific
community has long known that eradication of polio
is impossible because scientists had synthesised
poliovirus in a test-tube as early as in 2002. Thus
poliovirus cannot be declared extinct because
the sequence of its genome is known and modern
biotechnology allows it to be resurrected at any
time in vitro. They continue, “Getting poor countries
to expend their scarce resources on an impossible
dream over the last 10 years was unethical”. The
authors are highly critical of specific funding for
tackling polio, known as vertical funding, because
“this is a startling reminder of how initial funding and
grants from abroad distort local priorities”. They add:
“From India’s perspective the exercise has
been extremely costly both in terms of human
suffering and in monetary terms. It is tempting
to speculate what could have been achieved
if the $2.5 billion spent on attempting to
eradicate polio, were spent on water and
sanitation and routine immunization... The polio
eradication programme epitomizes nearly
everything that is wrong with donor funded
‘disease specific’ vertical projects at the cost
of investments in community-oriented primary
health care (horizontal programmes)”. 270
The same view on the problem with polio vaccines
is echoed in a recent article in the British Medical
Journal by Dr Viera Scheibner, a prominent
vaccination expert, who lists numerous studies
showing that Vaccine-associated Paralytic
Poliomyelitis (VAPP) – a condition caused by being
administered with polio vaccines – results “all over
the world wherever the poliomyelitis vaccines were
used”. The article concludes by stating that: “It
comes as no surprise that the most recent mass
polio vaccination programs fuelled by Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation resulted in increased
cases of VAPP… The only way to eradicate paralytic
poliomyelitis is to stop vaccinating”. 271
MenAfriVac in Chad
The BMGF is also funding the Meningitis Vaccine
Project, a partnership between the WHO and
PATH to develop and bring a vaccine to address
meningitis epidemics in Africa. Some 217 million
people in 15 countries have received the vaccine,
MenAfriVac, since it was introduced in 2010. 272 A
2013 study of MenAfriVac covered in the Lancet
found that the vaccine reduced cases of meningitis
by 94 per cent, a significant success rate. 273
One small part of this story, however, raises concerns
about the lack of adequate media and official
scrutiny over these programmes. The US online
media outlet, VacTruth, is one of the few sources to
have reported on an incident in December 2012, in
the small village of Gouro in northern Chad where
the vaccine was administered. The source writes
that 500 children were “locked into their school”
and “threatened that if they did not agree to being
force-vaccinated with a meningitis A vaccine,
they would receive no further education”. Without
their parents’ knowledge, the children were then
given MenAfriVac, which, according to the source,
was an unlicensed product still being tested.
Within hours, according to the VacTruth report, 106
children began to suffer from headaches, vomiting,
severe uncontrollable convulsions and paralysis.
After waiting for medical treatment which they
eventually received, and from which the children
recovered, each family was given an unconfirmed
sum of £1,000 by the government. No forms were
signed and no documentation was seen, and they
were informed that their children had not suffered
a vaccine injury. The story was covered in a local
newspaper, La Voix and by one mainstream news
channel in Chad, which filmed footage of the
then Prime Minister visiting the children in hospital.
But the vaccine programme was simply hailed a
success 274 and there has been little if any coverage
of the incident in the global media.
These stories, which, we repeat, Global Justice Now
has been unable to validate or investigate further,
all warrant further investigation and highlight the
need to subject BMGF-funded programme to
proper official scrutiny.
Gated Development: Is the Gates Foundation always a force for good? I 41