This was bad policy by the USA. The Chinese vaccines weren’t as good (lower efficacy) than others available, but they were much better than nothing. Where there was no availability of better vaccines, this discouraged people from getting any protection. People died because of this stupid program.
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.
Why is there zero surprise this was done by the Trump administration and undone by Biden?
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.
Did continue it for a year during the peak of covid.
I would have liked it to end sooner, but there was a lot to undo that first year.
That’s not exactly what happened if you read the article behind the bad headline. They were sowing doubt in the Chinese vaccine specifically in the Philippines, not vaccines in general.
And that makes it okay ✅
“Why did you do it when people were dying? We were desperate,” said Dr. Nina Castillo-Carandang, a former adviser to the World Health Organization and Philippines government during the pandemic. “We don’t have our own vaccine capacity,” she noted, and the U.S. propaganda effort “contributed even more salt into the wound.”
The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.
It seems it only started in the Philippines but ya it was mainly aimed at the Chinese vaccine and PPE. It’s more cutt throat shady business than anti-vax stupidity.
I mean the anti vax campaign worked well for Russia, so why not sew doubt in preventive measures during a global health crisis?
I wonder how many thousands of people died as a result.
Millions
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