The Unspoken Victory After Decades of War Against Polio

The things never make it to the news if they work as they should. An eventless course of action is not newsworthy. If an airplane reaches its destination safely, despite all the storms and bad weather then it doesn't matter. Every bad thing not happening should be reported and celebrated. Such as Pakistan beating polio this year is quite remarkable but is unspoken for as we have not faced any critical incident in the past year.

In many countries that have been polio-free for many years, but in Pakistan, it is a big win. We have lost many lives and have repeated many failures. Terrorists have killed and abducted the workers that were risking their everything to save as many human lives as possible. They needed security most of the time and many of the armed forces have lost their lives to protect our 'Unseen Saviours'. 

Despite all the challenges named above, the campaign faced another issue regarding the fake vaccine campaign by the CIA in the Northwest. This fake campaign raised many issues in the country including trust issues on the vaccine itself and increased hesitancy in the people. In addition to those, the managerial issues and the corruption delivered a killer blow to the polio vaccine campaign. But after all these issues, Pakistan achieved its goal in late January 2022 with the efforts of political bodies across the country.

Being one of the most important moments in the history of Pakistan, this news never really made it to the people and very few of the population knew about the achievement of this very crucial milestone. It was truly heartbreaking that despite all the efforts, the media never covered the topic. The people who found out about this achievement came to light only because Bill Gates talked about it during his visit to Pakistan.

It is said that there is a lot of negativity in Pakistan and we should always tell good things about Pakistan. But what to call us if this great achievement was only brought to light when a foreigner talks about it. Was it because the unspoken warriors didn't have a status? Or is it because we have failed our fallen heroes? Or do we not have a clear perspective of success? Maybe, it's all of the above. I hope that we learn from our mistakes and celebrate our next success.