Daily Times

“Terrorism is psychological warfare. Terrorists try to manipulate us and change our behaviour by creating fear, uncertainty, and division in society.”

(Patrick J. Kennedy)

Information is a powerful weapon. Its undeterred use in hybrid warfare is capable of stirring up great impacts. Being so diverse and unconventional, hybrid warfare is a hard target challenge for any nation to deal with. It can create confusion and ignite it into chaos; generating a nationwide crisis and venting into anarchy.

The very recent incident of causing a public reaction through information dissemination was witnessed when the polio vaccination campaign started here on Monday, April 22.

The polio eradication team administered polio drops in a private school in Mashokhel, KPK. This was followed by the school principal making a complaint of a few children getting sick after the polio vaccination. Polio eradication team and a doctor catering to the complaint checked the children and declared them okay. By then, the parents had been informed and the children were taken to the hospital. A Hayatabad medical complex reportedly received 78 children who were checked. Basic medical tests reported them to be stable and healthy.

But the incident didn’t stop there and the news of children getting sick from the administration of the polio vaccine spread like wildfire. Dozens upon dozens rushed to the hospitals bringing their children for check-ups and emergency treatments. In Charsada alone, around 800 children were hospitalised.

The news spread swiftly and by late resulted in the announcements from local mosques’ loudspeakers urging parents to not let their children vaccinated for polio. In case their children were already vaccinated, they continued, parents must rush as soon as possible to a nearby medical facility as few children had already lost their lives due to the reaction. These announcements flashed the flames of confusion and from dozens, the number of children brought to the hospitals soon raised to hundreds and reportedly reached thousands. The doctors managed to give first aid to the frightened children.

Most were released after being given treatments for nausea. Their blood and urine samples were tested and most were professed as okay. The health providers reported the frightened children were going through a psychological reaction of panic rather than any medical condition or a reaction to vaccination.

As the rumours spread and the announcements from mosques added fury to the anger, the public reaction stimulated into a panic, which resulted in mayhem. The angry crowd attacked a health centre in Peshawar; throwing stones at the mini-hospital. The building caught fire, and the whole facility was left broken, damaged and burnt. Slogans were cried against the provincial health authorities and the aggression multiplied many folds when the news was broadcasted on media. A wave of anger and disbelief soon spread through the entire country.

The magnitude of the incident called for an investigation into the matter to sort out the facts. By evening, the initial investigation into the matter cascaded the facts that the whole matter was nothing but a hoax.

If 100 per cent polio eradication is not accomplished, one infected case can pose a threat to several others

Out of thousands of children brought to the hospital, none had developed any adverse effect symptoms for the vaccine. Few children were examined and treated for nausea and vomiting, but their underlying cause was something else and not the vaccine itself. Moreover, the stock of vaccines administered in the affected area was tested and found to be satisfactory and not expired. Furthermore, the provincial health body of KPK stated the investigation would flow to the conspirators who had staged the panic and created a false alarm to trigger panic in the region.

The whole episode unveiled the dangerous play of hybrid warfare and its appalling effects. With social media and broadcasting tools surging with technological opportunities, it is even easier to disseminate fake distress and stage chaos. The panic and the rush the parents went through were tragic and no parent should ever have to face such a situation with their children. The conjured fear and the agitated protests it ignited, left the Basic Health Unit destroyed, parents confused and worried and the polio vaccination campaign hampered all over the country.

It is no secret that who benefits from creating such havoc in the country. The anti-state elements who want to destabilise Pakistan can go to any extents in acquiring their objectives. It is not the first time that the polio campaign was targeted. Previously there were several incidents where the polio teams were attacked, and we lost precious lives in this cause.

Polio or poliomyelitis is an infectious and deadly disease, which causes crippling. Caused by poliovirus, it is also contagious and spreads from person to person and causes paralysis by invading the infected person’s brain or spinal cord.

The very nature of the virus, being easily transmittable and spreading with person-to-person contact, makes it lethal as one infected person can spread the virus around, infecting other persons. Paralysis is the most severe symptom of the virus and causes permanent disability or death. Two to 10 per cent of the poliovirus infected persons die because the virus affects the muscles that help a person breathe. It is usually spread through contaminated water in unhygienic conditions and can also spread with a cough or sneeze. It usually affects children under the age of five. To eradicate polio, vaccination is directed either through the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). In Pakistan, OPV is administered to children aged under five years in the polio eradication campaigns carried out by the government of Pakistan. In Pakistan, complete polio eradication has not been possible as yet. As per the stats till October 2018, eight wild polio cases have been reported and environmental samples from 27 districts were reported to be infected. With 57 environmental detection sites, 260,000 frontline workers, 2,100 social mobilizers and an overall 95 per cent acceptance of the vaccination, a 97 per cent reduction in polio cases has been achieved since 2014.

But this reduction is futile if 100 per cent eradication is not accomplished because one infected case can pose a threat to several others. An anti-polio resentment has prevailed, making it even more challenging for the polio teams to vaccinate the children. Through social service messages broadcasted, the masses are constantly being educated to not let their children become vulnerable to the deadly virus.

However, the confusion on the matter of vaccination has been taken as a vulnerability by the anti-state agents and exploited time and again. Security forces have had to step up and defend the mobile teams operating in various parts of the country. From bomb blasts and targeted killings of polio teams in the past to the recent spreading of fake news regarding the reaction of the vaccine, it has been netted to the same threat of destabilising Pakistan from within. With the fast dissemination of the news and the exaggerated narrations and announcements from local mosques, the scheme was crafty, deliberate and successful to mobilise the masses over fake news. The government representatives narrated their resolve to further investigate the matter and uncover the source and facilitators of this hoax.

A day after this incident, a polio team was again attacked and an ASI lost his life while defending the team that was trying to protect our children against this deadly virus. Two more cases of polio came to surface in KPK only two days after this incident. This is alarming and reiterates the resolve that polio eradication is an eminent necessity and calls for a collective exertion to safeguard our children.

It calls for creating a social awareness campaign on multiple levels. Foremost is clearing out confusions the parents have regarding the effectiveness and side-effects of the vaccinations. Secondly, the loudspeakers of the mosques must not be used to create havoc, and no news must be shared and broadcasted on media before confirming its validity. Thirdly, the incident was an act of terrorism; devised, facilitated and executed to stage mayhem. The timing was crucial as the news of the death of Nishwa, a nine-month-old baby girl who died from the negligence of the hospital staff, had just put the whole nation in a state of sorrow and made parents amenable to the fright of getting their children sick with the administration of the wrong vaccine.

The investigation agencies must dig out the culprits, and the matter should be publically prosecuted to make masses aware of their enemies and all political and field facilitators of these terrorists must also be called out and dealt with as per terrorism act. Any act against the citizens of Pakistan is an act of war and the best defence against poliovirus is a good offence of vaccination.

The writer is a freelance columnist