Ameripharmiphobia

Tens of thousands of children in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan have not been vaccinated against polio after their parents refused to allow them to be treated. Extremists Muslim clerics have been spreading the rumour in the province, which is largely outside the control of the central government, that the vaccine is a plot by the American government to sterilise Muslim children. Similar rumours several years ago in Muslim provinces of Nigeria saw a spike in cases after large numbers of infants were not vaccinated.

One would think that this would be a fairly simple rumour to refute. After all, anyone who has carefully watched the performance of the Bush administration over the past six years would be hard pressed to believe that they would be capable of implementing such a plan.