Previously we discussed aspects of a report by Jack Burgess which was originally published on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page on November 2nd and which currently goes under the headline “Gaza polio vaccinations to resume after WHO reports attack on clinic”:
HOURS AFTER CLARIFICATION, BBC NEWS WEBSITE PROMOTES FALSE HAMAS CLAIM
The day after its original appearance under a different headline, that report was amended to promote claims concerning a supposed attack on a clinic. As we noted at the time:
“In other words, over fifteen hours after the IDF Spokesman had clarified that Israeli forces did not carry out that “strike on the Sheikh Radwan clinic”, the BBC nevertheless decided to promote second hand Hamas claims concerning “an Israeli quadcopter” along with the talking points of two UN agencies.”
Four days later, on the afternoon of November 7th, the BBC News website published a report by Joe Inwood which is now titled “Palestinians leave Gaza in rare medical evacuation” and which includes the following: [emphasis added]
“On Saturday [November 2nd – Ed], the WHO and other UN agencies set out to administer vaccines in Gaza City, after being forced to postpone the rollout in the north of the territory last month because of Israeli bombardment, mass displacement and lack of access.
The three-day operation was briefly interrupted by an attack on a hospital. The WHO did not say who was behind the strike, but local medical staff blamed an Israeli quadcopter. The Israeli military said it was investigating but did not believe it was responsible.”
As we see, in Inwood’s account of the story a clinic has become “a hospital” and the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defence agency has turned into “local medical staff”. Most significantly however, despite the IDF Spokesman having clarified five days earlier that “there was no strike by IDF forces in the area at the time in question”, Inwood continues to promote that unsubstantiated claim.
Inwood also tells his readers that:
“Wednesday [November 6th – Ed] also saw the WHO and Cogat announce the conclusion of the polio vaccination campaign across Gaza.
The WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said 556,770 children under the age of 10 – or 94% – had received two doses of the vaccine since September.
The programme came about in reaction to the discovery of a case of polio in August, the first recorded in Gaza for 25 years.
The virus can paralyse children or even kill them. It has been the subject of a global vaccination campaign for decades and has been mostly eradicated. […]
Dr Tedros said 105,500 children in the north of Gaza received a second dose, which amounted to around 88% coverage. For herd immunity to work, at least 90% of all children in every community and neighbourhood need to be given a minimum of two doses.
He warned that “7,000-10,000 children couldn’t be reached for their second doses and are thus vulnerable to polio”.
Parts of northern Gaza were not included in the vaccinations due to the continuation of intense Israeli military operations in towns like Jabalia and Beit Lahia.”
Inwood’s portrayal of why the IDF is having to conduct operations in the northern Gaza Strip includes the use of scare quotes around the word terrorists, as has increasingly been seen in BBC content of late. That use of superfluous punctuation presumably comes in response to criticism of the corporation’s refusal to call members of a designated terrorist organisation terrorists.
“Beit Lahia has come under heavy bombardment since the IDF launched a ground offensive in neighbouring Jabalia a month ago, saying it was acting against regrouping Hamas fighters.
The IDF said its troops had killed 50 “terrorists” in Jabalia over the past day.”
On November 6th it was indeed reported that the second round of oral Polio vaccinations had been completed, with the target of 90% of children in the Gaza Strip under the age of ten receiving two doses of the vaccine having been exceeded.
Following the first round of vaccinations in September, the WHO and its partners reported that 559,161 children had been vaccinated, saying that was around 95% of the children in the eligible age group.
In the second round of vaccinations in October and November, the WHO reported that 556,774 children had been vaccinated with a second dose, stating that “around 94% of the target population of 591,714 children under the age of 10 years received a second dose of nOPV2 across the Gaza Strip”.
In other words, according to the data put out by the WHO, the number of children vaccinated in the second round was 2,387 lower than in the first, which appears to be at odds with Inwood’s quoted claim that “7,000-10,000 children couldn’t be reached for their second doses and are thus vulnerable to polio”. The WHO also stated on November 6th that:
“…in northern Gaza, where the campaign was compromised due to lack of access, approximately 88% coverage was achieved according to preliminary data. An estimated 7000-10 000 children in inaccessible areas like Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to the poliovirus.”
The WHO’s statement refers to the fact that many residents of Jabalia have evacuated that area in recent weeks, despite Hamas efforts to prevent them from doing so:
“Due to hostilities, more than 150 000 people were forced to evacuate from North Gaza to Gaza City, which helped in accessing more children than anticipated.”
It also notes that in the central Gaza Strip the second round of the vaccination campaign achieved 103% coverage – a point not noted by Inwood – which may suggest that some of the children vaccinated there in the second round had been in other locations during the first round.
That perhaps goes some way towards explaining the discrepancy between the WHO claim in the BBC’s November 2nd report that “about 15,000 children” in the northern Gaza Strip “still remain inaccessible” and its claim just four days later that there are “an estimated 7000-10 000 children in inaccessible areas”.
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