CIA transnational health and economic activities

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The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency deals with activities related to human survival issues, emphasizing disease and basic needs such as water and agriculture as a part of its function across the world.

Contents

Assessments and reports

CIA activities in this area include the preparation of assessments and reports. These papers examine the most lethal diseases globally and by region; develops alternative scenarios about their future course; examines national and international capacities to deal with them; and assesses their national and global social, economic, political, and security impact. Some papers also assess the infectious disease threat from international sources to the United States; to U.S. military personnel overseas; and to regions in which the United States has or may develop significant equities.

The CIA also participates in the production of intelligence community assessments and reports. The National Intelligence Estimate on the Global Infectious Disease Threat, [1] the assessment on The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS, [2] and the assessment on SARS [3] are all joint intelligence-community products and are not products based solely on the work of CIA analysts. These assessments are summarized on the National Intelligence Assessments on Infectious Diseases page.

Using public aid for information

Some of the humanitarian efforts by the CIA have been accused of being false, or merely as a means to get information using the aid workers. A CIA polio vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan came under fire in 2011 after it was revealed the CIA used the program to get information about Osama bin Laden. [4]

Shakil Afridi, the man who helped the CIA orchestrate the campaign, was sentenced to jail by Pakistani officials. A number of relief workers were also killed while trying to hand out polio vaccines after mistrust about the workers being CIA spies grew.

This caused a weakening in U.S/Pakistan relations and set the campaign to eradicate polio back since the vaccinations were never completed. Congress also cut aid to Pakistan 58 percent in the following year. [5]

Using intelligence for humanitarian aid

The CIA has used the intelligence it has gathered to help countries with natural disasters. On their website, the CIA writes: "To support global and humanitarian issues, INR worked with the rest of the IC on imagery support in response to natural disasters, such as forest fires in Southeast Asia, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Declassified U-2 imagery helped regional planners in Latin America during the clean-up from Hurricane Mitch." [6]

They are also credited with helping earthquake relief efforts. The CIA display on their website that: "CIA supported USAID's humanitarian relief efforts following the earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan by quickly assembling map packages of the affected regions and, in each case, delivering the packages to a representative of USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster literally on their way to the airport for an outbound flight. [6]

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Polio vaccine Vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis

Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio). Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio. The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world, and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.

The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. After passing a century, which it celebrated in 2019, it is now a global movement made up of 30 national member organizations which work in 120 countries.

The oral polio vaccine (OPV) AIDS hypothesis is a now-discredited hypothesis that the AIDS pandemic originated from live polio vaccines prepared in chimpanzee tissue cultures, accidentally contaminated with simian immunodeficiency virus and then administered to up to one million Africans between 1957 and 1960 in experimental mass vaccination campaigns.

Catholic Relief Services Humanitarian agency from the USA

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Founded in 1943 by the Bishops of the United States, the agency provides assistance to 130 million people in more than 110 countries and territories in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds. No major religion prohibits vaccinations, and some consider it an obligation because of the potential to save lives. However, some people cite religious adherence as a basis for opting to forego vaccinating themselves or their children. Many such objections are pretextual: in Australia, anti-vaccinationists founded the Church of Conscious Living, a "fake church", leading to religious exemptions being removed in that country, and one US pastor was reported to offer vaccine exemptions in exchange for online membership of his church.

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Polio eradication Effort to permanently eliminate all cases of poliomyelitis infection

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Health in Afghanistan is steadily improving but it remains poor by today's international standard. It is negatively affected by the nation's environmenta issues and the continuing war since 1978, particularly the latest Taliban insurgency. The Ministry of Public Health oversees all matters concerning the health of the country's citizens and residents.

Health in Mali

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Pakistan is one of the two remaining countries in the world where poliomyelitis (polio) is still categorized as an endemic viral infection, the other one being Afghanistan. As of July 2022, there has been 13 documented cases in Pakistan in 2022. There was 1 documented case in Pakistan in 2021 and 84 documented cases in Pakistan in 2020. The total count of wild poliovirus cases in Pakistan in 2019 was 147.

The United States Intelligence Community (IC) has a long history of producing assessments on infectious diseases. Most of these papers are distributed to government administrators and inform the choices of policymakers. Three of these assessments stand out as analytical products that have had important impact on the awareness, funding and treatment of infectious diseases around the world. The first paper is the National Intelligence Estimate on the Global Infectious Disease Threat, the second paper is the assessment on the Next Wave of HIV/AIDS, and the third paper was the assessment on SARS. This page summarizes the findings of these three papers and provides information about their impact.

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Yvonne "Bonnie" Maldonado is an American physician, pediatrician, and Professor of Pediatrics and of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University, with a focus on Infectious Diseases. She founded Stanford's pediatric HIV Clinic and now serves as Stanford University School of Medicine's Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Diversity.

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David Alain Wohl is an American infectious disease physician. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was among those leading UNC's response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Wohl was appointed the Medical Director of the COVID Vaccination Clinic at UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus and led COVID-19 treatment clinical trials at UNC School of Medicine.

References

  1. ↑ National Intelligence Estimate 99-17D: The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States (PDF), January 2000
  2. ↑ Intelligence Community Assessment 2002-04D: The Next Wave of HIV AIDS (PDF), July 2002
  3. ↑ Intelligence Community Assessment 2003-09 SARS Down but Still a Threat (PDF), August 2003
  4. ↑ Chelsea Conaboy (February 28, 2013). "Boston physician: CIA's vaccination scheme in Pakistan undermined global public health efforts". Boston.com.
  5. ↑ Maryn McKenna (23 May 2012). "Update: Pakistan, Polio, Fake Vaccines And The CIA". WIRED.
  6. 1 2 "Regional Highlights". cia.gov. May 2, 2007. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007.
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