‘Syria was once one of the countries where polio was no longer a problem. The government began mandatory, free immunizations in 1964 and declared victory in 1995. But now, polio is back, writes Annie Sparrow in the The New York Review of Books, and she builds a case that Bashar al-Assad is to blame. Imagine if, instead of causing a traffic jam, Chris Christie’s aides had prevented towns that didn’t support him from getting access to basic childhood immunizations. According to Sparrow’s research, that’s exactly what the Assad regime did. And now, children are paying the price.’ (Boing Boing).