In vaccines we trust: The impact of the CIA vaccine ruse in Pakistan

• Monica Martinez-Bravo interviewed by
• Tim Phillips
• 4 May 2021

Mass vaccination programmes, and the problems of trust surrounding them, have been brought sharply into focus by COVID-19. In July 2011, the Pakistani public learnt that the CIA had used a vaccination campaign as cover to capture Osama Bin Laden. The Taliban leveraged on this information and launched an anti-vaccine propaganda campaign to discredit vaccines and vaccination workers. Monica Martinez-Bravo tells Tim Phillips about her research into the long-term effects of this episode on vaccination behaviour in Pakistan.