The invisible heroes

When things work as they should, they often do not make the news. The absence of an event is not newsworthy. Airlines landing safely for example, time and again, despite bad weather remain unreported. But every now and then the absence of something bad should be reported and celebrated. That Pakistan has had a whole year without a single incident of wild polio is quite remarkable.

It may not be news in most countries of the world that have been polio-free for years, but in Pakistan, we have paid a heavy price to reach this point. Too many people, most of whom worked in far-off districts and with no grand titles to their name, have lost their lives and their livelihoods. We had repeated failures. Too many of the frontline workers were shot dead and abducted by terrorists. Others, who survived, often waited endlessly to be paid their wages by the government. Yet, across the country these men and women marched forward in high heat and deep snow, equipped with the bare minimum. At times they had to be provided armed security, and scores of policemen lost their lives protecting the workers as well. They all are real heroes of our society. We owe so much to every single one of them.

The campaign, in addition to its own challenges, took a serious hit in the aftermath of the deeply unethical fake vaccination campaign by the CIA in the northwest. We are still living with the loss of trust from that episode and pay a price in security and vaccine hesitancy among so many. Subsequent years saw — in addition to this loss of trust — poor management and outright corruption. Yet, despite all this, through effort of so many people of all political stripes across the country, Pakistan recorded a major milestone in late January 2022.

This is an important moment in our effort to improve our public health, particularly against infectious diseases. We cannot be complacent, especially since our success, while real, is still fragile. The situation in Afghanistan with a collapsed health system and an acute and growing humanitarian crisis is likely to create new health challenges for the vulnerable there and in Pakistan.

Somehow, the news of a polio-free year never really penetrated the society, and few in the country knew about it. The newspapers were largely silent or reported it in the back pages, and there was little coverage on media. There was, as always a litany of everything else from scheming to chest thumping, cricket to celebrity weddings, but little in the way of recognising a milestone that has taken countless lives and billions of rupees to reach. It is not that we do not know how to celebrate. Wasn’t there a recent event with some certificates, etc? A number of people found out about the polio story only when it was discussed in conjunction with the recent trip by Mr Gates.

I wonder what this says about us as people. On the one end, we are told repeatedly that there is too much negativity and we all ought to tell good stories about Pakistan, and on the other we only find out about our own successes when someone famous from the outside visits us. Is it because the heroes of the story are not the rich and the famous? Or is it because the story is about how we failed so many of our heroes? Or is it because our definition of success and failure is warped? Perhaps it is all of the above. I hope we will march onwards, and build on this success with care and humility, recognising that many of our kids tomorrow will be healthy because of the real sacrifice of so many invisible heroes of the nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2022.

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