REPORT: Pentagon Ran Secret Anti-Vax Campaign to Undermine China

According to a new Reuters report, the US Military launched a secret anti-vax campaign in the Philippines to counter China’s growing influence.

The clandestine operation aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China. The US Military used fake online accounts impersonating Filipinos, which 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 that matched descriptions shared by former US military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all of these accounts were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.

“COVID came from China and the VACCINE 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.”

X removed the fake profiles after Reuters informed the company, due to them being a part of a bot campaign.

The secret anti-vax effort started back in early 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021. The campaign tailored the exact propaganda for each local audience, across central Asia and the Middle East. A key part of the strategy was to amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.

The secret program started under President Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, even after alarmed social media executives warned the Biden administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. Biden’s administration stopped the campaign in the spring of 2021, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.

The US military is prohibited from targeting Americans with propaganda. The Reuters report found no evidence the Pentagon’s influence operation targeted any Americans.

Spokespeople for Trump and Biden did not respond to requests for comment.

A senior Defense Department official acknowledged that the US military did engage in secret propaganda to disparage China’s vaccine in the developing world.

A spokeswoman for the Pentagon said the US military “uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the US, allies, and partners.” She also noted that China had started a “disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of COVID-19.”

Clandestine psychological operations are among the US government’s most highly sensitive programs. Only a few people within US intelligence and military agencies are aware of these programs, which are treated with extra caution due to the risk of international incidents if they were to be exposed.

{Matzav.com}