Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic

[KhunLA]

Read into it what you want, I'll hold my opinion...   But Musk & X, now has free speech, to a point, and no longer the propaganda machine it was once used as.  Nice to know there is still some investigative reporting going on.

 

From Reuters (first 3 paragraphs) .... 

 

"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."

 

 

Edited June 16 by stats
comment on moderation removed

[zakalwe]

So Sinovac vaccine had pork gelatin and mRNA vaccines had embedded Microsoft nanochips.

 

I try to stay away from getting information from socials. I can only imagine misinformation will heat up with the US election coming.

It is sad though that traditional journalism seems to be dying out. No one wants to pay for the news.

Edited June 15 by zakalwe

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

An interesting news report and peculiar kind of military disinformation campaign, rooted in part in prior Chinese propaganda baselessly blaming the U.S. for the origins of COVID. Here's some added info from the Reuters report for perspective clarifying that the campaign in the Philippines was aimed in particular at China's Sinovac vaccine, which in fact had been shown to be less effective than comparable mRNA vaccines:

 

The subheadline of the article:

 

"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."

 

And from the article:

 

"“COVID came from China and the VACCINE [referring to Sinovac] also came from China, don’t trust China!” one typical tweet from July 2020 read in Tagalog. The words were next to a photo of a syringe beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections. Another post read: “From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.”

...

"The military program started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found."

 

-------------------

 

What was true -- the Pentagon disinformation campaign notwithstanding -- was that the Chinese COVID vaccines like Sinovac were shown in trials to be less effective against COVID, though not harmful or fake AFAIK, compared with their mRNA counterparts developed in the West. And, China during the pandemic did produce and sell to desperate customers in the West and elsewhere a lot of poorly-made or downright fake/counterfeit face masks and other PPE, just as the propaganda campaign claimed:

 

Sinovac jabs not as effective in preventing severe disease: S’pore study

December 16, 2021

 

"Researchers found that the Sinovac vaccine was 60 per cent effective against severe disease, compared with 90 per cent for the Pfizer vaccine and 97 per cent for Moderna’s vaccine.

 

In other words, people who took the Sinovac vaccine were more likely to require supplemental oxygen and intensive care, and also more likely to die of COVID-19."

 

https://www.ncid.sg/News-Events/News/Pages/Sinovac-jabs-not-as-effective-in-preventing-severe-disease-S’pore-study.aspx

 

AND

Faulty masks. Flawed tests. China’s quality control problem in leading global COVID-19 fight

April 10, 2020

...

A growing list of foreign complaints about faulty medical gear and testing kits imported from China has upset Beijing’s designs. Within the last few weeks, scientists and health authorities in Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Britain have complained of faulty antigen or antibody coronavirus tests purchased from Chinese companies — in some cases, costing these governments millions of dollars.

...

Last week, the Netherlands asked to return 600,000 face masks purchased from China that had inadequate filters and fit incorrectly. On Tuesday, Finland tested a shipment of personal protective equipment, or PPE, from China and found the items unsuitable for hospital use. Australian border officials have also reportedly seized 800,000 faulty or counterfeit masks from China.

 

The problem is worse at home. On March 12, officials at a State Council news briefing announced that authorities had seized more than 80 million counterfeit or faulty masks and 370,000 defective or fake disinfectants and other anti-coronavirus products in the prior month alone."

 

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-10/china-beijing-supply-world-coronavirus-fight-quality-control

 

So, at least in this instance, there was some truth behind all propaganda allegations being made against China.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

And what was the U.S. Pentagon responding to from China?:

China doubles down on baseless ‘US origins’ Covid conspiracy as Delta outbreak worsens

August 6, 2021

 

"Hong Kong CNN  — As Beijing grapples with a worsening outbreak of the Delta variant, an outlandish conspiracy theory linking the origin of the coronavirus to the United States military has gained renewed traction in China.

 

The wholly unfounded theory, which claims the virus may have been leaked from a US Army lab, has been repeatedly promoted by Chinese officials and state media since March last year.

...

The campaign comes after Beijing rejected WHO’s proposal for a second-phase probe into the origins of Covid-19 last month. The study would include audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic. That has drawn the ire of Beijing, with a top Chinese health official accusing WHO of “disregarding common sense and defying science.”

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/06/china/china-covid-origin-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

 

[Amethyst]

This news report is already the subject of a thread in the World News section. Therefore, this thread is closed, and further discussion can follow in the World News thread: