Search

On February 18, a police officer protecting polio workers in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was shot and killed by suspected militants. Although no one has claimed responsibility, Bajaur has seen similar attacks in the past. In response to the attack, some social media users called for an end to door-to-door vaccination campaigns to reduce security risks. Others suggested ending all anti-polio work and expressed doubt that polio will ever be eliminated. Several posts questioned whether polio vaccination efforts are risking the lives of police officers, claiming without evidence that vaccination campaigns have “orphaned more children” than they have saved from polio.

On February 14, Pakistan’s National Institute of Health confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus in eight districts: five in Balochistan province and three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The samples were collected between January 15-24. However, reports of the samples were overshadowed by a video clip spreading across social media of a child refusing polio drops and telling polio workers to “respect the name of Allah and leave here.” The video has been viewed thousands of times, with most responses expressing amusement. One post claims that the child “needed something from the Quran” to send polio workers away. 

News sites and social media users worldwide responded with a mix of excitement and frustration to the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the top health official in the U.S. due to Kennedy’s long history of promoting anti-vaccine myths and affiliation with a prominent anti-vaccine organization. Some popular posts expressed concern that Kennedy’s leadership would lead to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio. A U.S. congressperson posted about Kennedy’s alleged role in a measles outbreak in Samoa, which she incorrectly called a polio outbreak. Several posts supported Kennedy’s false claims about vaccine development, while others accused physicians and infectious disease experts opposed to the confirmation of “fearmongering” and insinuated that vaccines are more of a threat than the diseases they prevent.

A social media post about polio vaccines in Lakki Marwat received many responses calling for a boycott of anti-polio campaigns in the region using the hashtag #polioboycott. The boycott is in support of kidnapped factory workers in Lakki Marwat. Some posts state that peace is more important than the polio campaign. Meanwhile, residents in a village near Makli, Thatta, launched a “No water, no vaccines” boycott to protest a lack of clean water access. Several posts falsely claimed that polio vaccines are harmful and that the disease is only spreading in children who have received multiple polio drops.

On April 6, Gaza’s Health Ministry warned that Israel is blocking polio vaccines from entering the region, putting over 600,000 children at risk. In response, many commenters called for an end to the blockade, while other posts claimed that polio vaccines are “toxic” and unnecessary during the conflict.

Several social media posts across multiple platforms are circulating the unsupported claim that 75 children in Pakistan contracted polio despite being vaccinated. The reported source for the claim is the Minister of State for National Health Services, who allegedly announced that the government would launch an inquiry into the cases. One post sharing the claim accused the government—without evidence—of refusing to check the ingredients of polio vaccines provided by the Gates Foundation and WHO because they are “exempted” from testing. Other posts claimed that the vaccines are just water, that the vaccines are “poison” that causes polio, and that polio vaccines harmed half a million people in India, a myth that has been repeatedly debunked. However, the limited online coverage of the claim does not include a quote from the minister to support it. Additionally, no mainstream news sites, global health organizations, or government bodies have confirmed the alleged infections or the existence of any inquiry. Notably, the supposed number of polio infections in vaccinated children surpasses the total number of polio cases in Pakistan for all of 2024.

The deputy commissioner of Pakistan’s South Waziristan Lower district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province posted an announcement of an agreement among tribal council leaders to end the polio boycott. The news comes after several local groups earlier in March called for polio boycotts amid reports that 14 districts across the country had detected poliovirus. Most of the responses to the social media post were positive.

U.S. and French-based social media accounts shared a video interview with a known French anti-vaccine advocate on a site with a history  of promoting anti-vaccine conspiracies. The posts claim that the interviewee, a retired French physician, is “raising the alarm” about a heightened risk of cVDPV2 at “10 times the rate of WPV” through the oral polio vaccines allegedly promoted by Bill Gates and WHO. Responses to the posts were both in favor of and against the physician, and some also criticized Bill Gates’ and so-called Western “experiments,” repeating the debunked myth that Gates used vaccination efforts as a forced depopulation plan. One response from a user claiming to have worked for “UNICEF/CDC/WHO vaccination campaigns” sowed doubt about vaccination efforts. However, overall the posts have had relatively few engagements and are being shared mostly in the United States, France, and Canada.