Trump's Pentagon Ran Anti-Vax Campaign in Phillipinnes to Undermine China
This story is not getting the pickup it deserves. Broke yesterday.
I'm not naive and know the U.S. is involved in some messy stuff. Just like most every large nation. But this is WAY outside of the boundaries.
This anti-vax campaign on social media started under the Trump administration but continued for a couple of months under Biden. The Chinese were doing their own disinformation campaigns but that's China. Not the U.S.
The Philippines had one of the lowest vax rates in SE Asia and you have to wonder how much influence this had. I'm certain innocent people died unnecessarily. That should NEVER be on the table. So very, very wrong.
The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.
The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.
Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.
Full story: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/
I'm not naive and know the U.S. is involved in some messy stuff. Just like most every large nation. But this is WAY outside of the boundaries.
This anti-vax campaign on social media started under the Trump administration but continued for a couple of months under Biden. The Chinese were doing their own disinformation campaigns but that's China. Not the U.S.
The Philippines had one of the lowest vax rates in SE Asia and you have to wonder how much influence this had. I'm certain innocent people died unnecessarily. That should NEVER be on the table. So very, very wrong.
The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.
The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.
Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.
Full story: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/
