Report: Pentagon Ran Secret Anti-Vax Campaign to Discredit China

Facts

• According to a Reuters investigation published on Friday, the US Pentagon launched a clandestine anti-vaccination campaign in the Philippines at the height of the pandemic to counter a perceived growth of Chinese influence in the hard-hit country.¹
• According to the news agency, at least 300 social media accounts were created on X — the platform then known as Twitter — to call into question the safety and efficiency of China's Sinovac, as well as the quality of test kits and face masks.²
• Reuters added that the alleged campaign was carried out from a psyops center in Florida between the spring of 2020 and mid-2021, with similar efforts also targeting audiences in Central Asia and the Middle East, particularly Muslim users.³
• Reuters drew on interviews with current and former US officials, military contractors, social media analysts, and academic researches, and also reviewed social media posts, technical data, and several documents.⁴
• As of June 2021, the Philippines had reported 1.3M COVID cases with nearly 24K deaths, the worst death rate in Southeast Asia, and only 2.1M of its 114M citizens were fully vaccinated despite the government's target of 70M.⁵
• Clandestine propaganda efforts have long played a role in US military operations abroad, as the law only prohibits the Pentagon from targeting Americans, Reuters reported, adding that the alleged campaign was a direct response to China's alleged COVID disinformation.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Newsweek, ³AntiWar, ⁴Daily Mail, ⁵USA Today and ⁶Reuters.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by Daily Caller. How hypocritical must Democrats be to claim that former Pres. Donald Trump was racist and xenophobic for calling the coronavirus the 'China virus' during the 2020 presidential campaign, only to allow the Pentagon to continue conducting this propaganda campaign against China for months after Joe Biden took office?
• Democratic narrative, as provided by Salon. In a bid to harm Chinese interests during the pandemic, the Trump-era Pentagon put innocent lives at risk in several countries, particularly in US treaty ally Philippines. If that wasn't outrageous and un-American enough, they deliberately concealed this campaign from the Biden admin., which terminated it after being warned by social media executives.

Predictions