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Did the US put the Philippines in danger of Covid for potential geopolitical gain? [1]

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Date: 2024-06-14  

Yes…if Reuters is to be believed. This is the headline from their article.

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

It is a rather long article with many details so here is my summary.

In the summer of 2020, the US military used at least 300 accounts in Twitter and perhaps elsewhere to create doubt and skepticism regarding Covid products from China. IN THE PHILIPPINES. This was largely based upon #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.

It seems to have become largely an anti-vax campaign but was also targeted to be against anything coming from China, including masks and PPE. Special attention was aimed toward Muslims as there is sometimes pork gelatin in vaccines. Pork is very haram in Islam and forbidden.

Philippines then President Rodrigo Duterte is/was a special kind of suck but did notice a problem. “You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,” Duterte said on TV in June 2021. “There is a crisis in this country … I’m just exasperated by Filipinos not heeding the government.”

The US propaganda was rather successful. “Only 2.1 million of its 114 million citizens were fully vaccinated – far short of the government’s target of 70 million. By the time Duterte spoke, COVID cases exceeded 1.3 million, and almost 24,000 Filipinos had died from the virus. The difficulty in vaccinating the population contributed to the worst death rate in the region.”

And of course this all started under the Pretendsident but remained for at least a few months into 2021 under President Biden. A Pentagon spokeswoman defended this with China started it with “a disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of COVID-19.” Sure what ever. Almost 50,000 Filipinos died of Covid. And research indicates that mistrust in one vaccine can lead to mistrust in others. Like in Pakistan, where the CIA used a fake hepatitis vaccination program lie to hunt for Osama bin Laden. “Discovery of the ruse led to a backlash against an unrelated polio vaccination campaign, including attacks on healthcare workers, contributing to the reemergence of the deadly disease in the country.”

No matter your opinion RE China, and/or Pakistan, I humbly submit that using civilians in another country to take care of your own business is not OK. Yes. I know. Most or many countries are now using clandestine psychological operations, or psyops. And I am older that the internet. But stuff against each other like TikTok or the like above USED IN CHINA by us is one thing. Making living more dangerous in third countries for your benefit and the detriment of whoever is not acceptable. But I am willing to read counter opinions.

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