there does seem to be, however, a particular fear among some muslims, from india to nigeria, that vaccines (and mass vaccination campaigns) are an attempt to sterilize or infect people rather than help them (it’s not a totally irrational fear that a state would try to control the fertility of some of its members, perhaps especially minorities and/or those that tend to have larger families – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gave-birth-control-to-ethiopian-jews-without-their-consent-8468800.html).

there has been, in other places and times, more faith in ‘vaccine diplomacy’ and reports of battlers in the midst of a war taking a break to allow a vaccine campaign to proceed before resuming fighting. my hope is that indonesia or, more pertitently, egypt – which recently saw new polio cases from pakistan – will take a role in building or restoring faith in this fairly basic preventitive health measure. saudi arabia’s vaccine requirements for the hajj may play a similar, important role that could perhaps be emphasized more strongly (http://www.hajinformation.com/main/p3001.htm)

it is precisely because vaccines (and other basic measures to prevent child mortality) are so important that charles kenny and others put forward a petition to the US government to make sure that security and defense organizations (like the CIA) did not mix public health campaigns with other aims (like finding bin laden), to preserve the fragile trust that exists around them and certainly to protect the health workers trying to administer vaccines.