It says that it continued into the Biden era as well.
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.
Not surprised at all it is something the Trump administration was doing considering his rhetoric on the pandemic in general, and China. Awful all around.
Post: “America proven to have done yet another thing wrong”
First comment: “BuT rUsSiA aNd ChInA?!!?!!!1!!11!”
For the record, this is a report coming from Reuters, the reports that Russia spread misinformation about COVID came from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center
I usually see the opposite: some post about Russia or China doing something shitty and a bunch of "but the US!!!!" comments. Too much whataboutism all around.
And frankly, with the disinformation campaigns we definitively know Russia is doing, Volodya Ilich, it’s not farfetched to think Russia would do this. Especially considering how brutally Covid hit Russia and the vaccine skepticism they had domestically.
“Graphika has tracked disinformation that is probably spread by a group affiliated with people who used to work with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which propagated disinformation during the 2016 election. […] While the group advances Moscow’s strategic narratives, it is unclear what precise ties, if any, it has to the Russian government”
The best link they could make between the posts and the Russian Government is “it was PROBABLY spread by a group AFFILIATED with people who USED TO work with the Saint Petersburg-based…”. Come on, man.
Volodya Ilich
That happens to be a reference to Lenin because I’m a socialist. The current Russian government on its downwards spiral to Fascism is the polar opposite of what socialism represents. Maybe stop being racist against anything with Russian roots, there’s plenty of opposition against the oligarchic imperialist government. It’s not far-fetched that the russian government would do this, but that’s entirely not the point of the post. The post is saying “America does evil thing” and the first comment that pops up on my screen is “oh, so just like Russia?”. No. Not "just like Russia. Just like the USA because it’s a force for evil in the world in itself.
Except that one is still going strong today… Like, how nuts is that? I have family that literally went full anti-vax since that point. Fully vaccinated before the pandemic.
“We need to (respond). Not only the authorities, the state, but all our people in general. After all, they - the U.S. and its crappy allies - have declared a war on us without rules!,” Medvedev wrote on his official Telegram channel, which has over 1.3 million followers.
“Every day we should try to do maximum harm to those countries that have imposed these restrictions. Harm their economies, their institutions and their rulers. Harm the well-being of their citizens, their confidence in the future.”
I don’t think that escalation with the West is likely gonna be advantageous for Russia, but I suppose that, in the grand tradition of empiricism, there’s only one way to find out for sure.
Honestly, I have no idea how valid/effective the Chinese vaccine is. But stuff like this is bad for everyone, not just the people they were targeting. Short sighted plan, in my opinion.
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 Americans, 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.
FTFT. Also horse de-wormer, hydroxychloriquine, and bleach. The Pentagon was just doing what other wrong-thinking military psyops orgs were doing. The MAGAts were, of course, the targets for those.
Unsurprisingly led by the demented orange rapist who embraced all the garbage and spread it widely, and bigly.
My point is that the same article, with just a few minor substitutions, could be aptly applied to right-wing MAGAs and Qult members who joined in and amplified said message. I have no doubt there is some equivalent to the Herman Cain Award winners in the Philippines.
I seriously didn’t realize this was meant to be a secret?
Trump still can’t say “China” without saying it in a really weird tone because he’s used to saying “China flu” with emphasis on China.
You can’t help but think that a big component of the depression/doom feeling a lot of the experienced at the time was indirectly related to things Trump did
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.
“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.
reuters.com
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