So…What’s the deal with Gaza’s polio vaccination campaign?

Kit Knightly

Two weeks ago, the first case of polio was detected in Gaza for 25 years, leaving a ten month-old child partially paralyzed and forcing decisive action from the World Health Organization.

Doctors were dispatched to Gaza with over a million doses of polio vaccine, with the aim of vaccinating 640,000 children in record time.

Israel and Hamas even agreed to quote-unquote “humanitarian” pauses in the bombing for a few hours every day to get the vaccinations done.

The good news – according to the WHO – is that all these efforts have been successful so far, and they are actually vaccinating more children than they planned too.

…And the world breathed a sign of relief.

Thankfully the starving, homeless children of Gaza won’t get polio as they crouch under the rubble of their homes praying the next batch of cluster bombs misses them.

Sometimes a story hits the news and you’re initial reaction is simply, “Wait…what?”

It used to be a semiregular occurrence, but since “covid” it has become almost daily. This is one of those stories. I just don’t get it.

The paralyzed child was actually due to receive his first polio vaccine on October 7th last year – the same day as the “Al-Aqsa Flood”, if you can believe it (as it happens I can’t, but increasingly I can’t really believe anything).

Why would Israel agree to “humanitarian pauses” to vaccinate children they are apparently intent on blowing to pieces?

I mean, if you can stop blowing up children because you don’t want them to die of polio, can’t you stop blowing up children because you don’t want them to die of being blown up?

Don’t forget, even before the latest one-sided “war”, Israel had been starving Gaza of supplies and water and energy for years.

Why are vaccines the exception to that?

Why is vaccinating against polio of all things any kind of priority right now?

Imagine Darth Vader is dueling Obi Wan Kenobi down a corridor on the Death Star – each swing of the light sabre intended to deal a killing blow – but then he pauses the fight to warn the older man about a “caution: wet floor” sign behind him.

It has that similar feeling to ISIS suddenly calling a halt to suicide bombings during the “pandemic”.

The only explanation I can think of is that there is some kind of override priority when it comes to narratives. War trumps climate change, but vaccines trump war and so on.

This is a way of reinforcing the overwhelming vitalness of vaccination – even enemies, blowing each other up in a war, will stop to get kids vaccines (before blowing them up). Vaccines are just that important.

It’s yet another bizarre narrative twist that calls into question the true purpose and motivation for the Gaza war as a whole.

Or maybe it’s just a symptom of living in an insane world run by insane people to insane ends.

Or maybe it’s a story thread that will lead somewhere else eventually.

Down the line, don’t be surprised if the media starts saying “war is a threat to public health by making pandemics more likely”, or that the “polio ceasefire shows hope for the future” and that is the launching pad a for a fresh push on the global government “let’s all get along” messaging.