Overview

• Internal WHO documents dating back to 2017 reveal widespread falsified vaccination records, untrained workers and failures to maintain vaccine cold chains in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• The live oral polio vaccine remains a core pillar of WHO strategy despite rare risks of paralysis and vaccine-derived outbreaks in underimmunized areas and insufficient injectable doses.
• Campaign workers report that cultural distrust, rampant misinformation and poverty have prevented reliable door-to-door immunization in remote and insecure regions.
• Former WHO scientist Dr. T. Jacob John and independent reviewers have repeatedly urged a major strategy overhaul, but WHO has so far resisted changing its oral-vaccine-centric approach.
• Donors funding the $1 billion-a-year Global Polio Eradication Initiative now demand transparent accountability and strategic adaptation to safeguard continued financial support.