These excerpts from Rick Gladstone and Hwaida Saad\’s article in the New York Times tells the story:
Animproperly mixed or possibly sabotaged measles vaccine has killed asmany as 50 children in insurgent-held areas of northwestern Syria,volunteer medical organizations and physicians reported Wednesday,forcing the suspension of a large-scale United Nations vaccinationcampaign intended to stop the spread of measles, rubella and polio.
Thevictims, some of them infants, apparently all died Tuesday, mostlyconcentrated in the cities of Jarjanaz and Sinjar in Idlib Province,an area controlled by forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
Dr.Abdulla Ajaj, a physician who helped administer the vaccine, said thesuspect batch of doses had been received three days before they wereused. “This is the first time we have had such a problem,” hesaid in a Skype interview.
Theprovenance of the vaccine also was not immediately clear. Dr. Ajajspeculated that the doses might have been stored at improperly hightemperatures, but other physicians discounted that possibility,partly because the same vaccine had been used on many other childrenwith no ill effects. Some speculated that toxins or othercontaminants might have been introduced when the vaccine, which comesin multiple-dose vials, was diluted for individual injections.
AnotherSyrian physician in the affected area, Mohammad Hamadi, the secretaryof a group called the Free Doctors Union, said medics who diluted thevaccine might have mixed it with Atracurium, a muscle relaxant usedin surgery. Dr. Hamadi said the Atracurium bottles looked similar tothe bottles of vaccine diluent. “We are investigating if it\’s amistake by the medical crew or a criminal act,” he said.
What is the answer? Is this an amazingly disastrous error by medics working in Idlib Province? Or is it s horrific message sent to what is left of the Syrian population by one of the so-called “rebel groups”?
And if it is the latter, is this one of the groups President Obama has announced he is arming?
We had damn well better find out, hadn\’t we? Before arms are shipped, wouldn\’t you say?
One other thing: Since this has occurred under the auspices of the United Nations, do you think it will conduct a full investigation, to determine whether one of the warring factions in Syria – bashar al-assad\’s government very much among them – is responsible for this mass execution of children?
Or does the UN only conduct investigations when Israel, after thousands of rockets and missiles are fired into its land, decides to do something about it?
Almost 200,000 Syrians are dead over the last three years, and there have been no UN investigations that I know of so far. But 2,000 Gazans are dead, largely because their “leaders” fire rockets from residential locations, and then demand the residents stay right where they are, even when Israel literally tells them it is going to hit back, and there is an immediate investigation…of Israel.
I call the UN Useless and Neutered. Any doubt about why?
