(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . REUTERS: Trump Used Pentagon to Push Anti-COVID Vax Propaganda to Filipinos & Muslims in 2020 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-14 This is...a LOT: From Reuters: [A program] aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China [was launched by the U.S. military in the summer of 2020]. 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. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military [under Trump] 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 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. The program was killed by the incoming Biden administration in early 2021: 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. In short, under convicted felon Trump’s administration, the Pentagon began a large-scale propaganda effort on social media to spread anti-vax messages in Central Asia and the Middle East, under the guise of “countering China’s influence in the Philippines” — but launching a program that very likely ended up causing the deaths of Fillippinos and Muslims by telling them NOT TO WEAR MASKS or get VACCINATED while tens of thousands of them were dying every day during the peak of a global pandemic, is a pretty weird way to go about it. Not to mention that while China’s vaccine was ultimately found to be less effective, it was still approved by the World Health Organization at the time, as all the other vaccines were — which the Trump administration *knew* — which means they were intentionally pushing anti-vax propaganda against a WHO-approved vaccine that was desperately needed in the Philippines and in the Middle East. According to Reuters, the program continued for a few months into the Biden administration until they were able to stop it in early 2021. It’s important to remember here, re: the fact that it continued for some months into Biden’s tenure, that Trump had GUTTED almost every government department and that — in some very suspicious timing - he had put his ratfink lackeys and loyalists in control at the Pentagon in 2020 right after the summer, once the anti-vax program had started. In other words, this was still going on while the new administration was basically just starting to clean up the catastrophic mess that was left of the government when they came in and discovering the breadth of insanity they walked into, given that the Trump admin gave them *zero* help with the transition. While tech CEO’s apparently “warned the (new) admin that Trump’s Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID disinformation”, we don’t know what manner of “warning” that was or any details there and given what they were facing, there were likely some wheels slowly turning as they got wind of everything. The point is that the Biden administration stopped this nightmarish program in EARLY 2021, which was still peak-pandemic era. While the Pentagon claims that this program was in retaliation for China blaming the U.S. for COVID-19...once again, specifically targeting the Phillipines and the Middle East for anti-vax and anti-mask propaganda seems less like retaliation against China and more nauseatingly in line with the Trump administration’s agendas. A spokesperson for the Philippines Department of Health...said the “findings by Reuters deserve to be investigated and heard by the appropriate authorities of the involved countries.” Some aide workers in the Philippines, when told of the U.S. military propaganda effort by Reuters, expressed outrage. Briefed on the Pentagon’s secret anti-vax campaign by Reuters, some American public health experts also condemned the program, saying it put civilians in jeopardy for potential geopolitical gain. In terms of how many people may have died because of the Trump administration’s anti-vax Pentagon program? God knows: Together, the phony accounts used by the military had tens of thousands of followers during the program. Reuters could not determine how widely the anti-vax material and other Pentagon-planted disinformation was viewed, or to what extent the posts may have caused COVID deaths by dissuading people from getting vaccinated. In the wake of the U.S. propaganda efforts, however, then-Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte had grown so dismayed by how few Filipinos were willing to be inoculated that he threatened to arrest people who refused vaccinations. I highly recommend reading this story, as it’s stunning reporting. However, what’s disturbing about the articles I’m beginning to see on this story is that it’s being reported in headlines that it was the “Pentagon” — as if they acted independently — and not that this was started under Trump — and ended by Biden. It goes without saying: there needs to be a major investigation into any directives given to the Pentagon by the Trump administration leading up to the summer of 2020 — and to what extent this may have led to lives being lost in both the Philippines and in the middle east. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/6/14/2246646/-Trump-Administration-Used-Pentagon-to-Spread-Anti-Vax-Propaganda-to-Filipinos-and-Muslims-in-2020 Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/