COVID-19: Investigation reveals how American military undermined Chinese vaccine

In what could be described as a war for market control, a new investigative report by Reuters has exposed how the United States Department of Defence, Pentagon, secretly carried out an anti-vaccine campaign to discredit the Sinovac vaccine, which China produced.

The report states that the campaign ran specifically in the Philippines between 2020 and 2021, at the height of the pandemic, which shook the world, claiming thousands of lives and paralysing the global economy.

Inside report

Published on Friday, the report revealed that American officials coordinated a clandestine effort during the administration of former President Donald Trump. The campaign against Sinovac ran for many months into the administration of Mr Trump’s successor, Joe Biden.

According to the report, the campaign aimed to sow doubt about the efficacy and safety of the Chinese vaccine and neutralise China’s rising influence in Asia and the world. At the same time, the American government quietly rolled out vaccines to its citizens.

The report states that the officials launched a disinformation programme using over 300 fake social media accounts, especially on X (formerly Twitter), to impersonate Filipinos, warning others to avoid China’s vaccine.

These bot accounts reportedly posted a handful of purported gripes over the quality of face masks, test kits, and China’s Sinovac vaccine with the hashtag “Chinaangvirus” (“China is the virus” in Tagalog).
“COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” one typical tweet from July 2020 reportedly read in Tagalog. The words were said to have been placed beside a syringe photo beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections.

Another post reads: “From China PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.” COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!”

In the report, Reuters said the phoney accounts used by the US military had tens of thousands of followers during the programme.

Reuters could, however, not determine how widely the anti-vax material and other Pentagon-planted disinformation were read or the extent of COVID deaths it might have caused.

Fightback against China?

The report also stated that the Pentagon’s anti-vax propaganda was a response to China’s efforts to spread false information about the origins of COVID-19.

Although the virus first emerged in China in late 2019, the Chinese government claimed in March 2020 that it may have been first brought to China by an American service member who participated in an international military sports competition in Wuhan the previous year.

Reuters also said that Chinese officials suggested that the virus may have originated in a US Army research facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland, although there was no evidence to support these assertions.

“The Chinese intelligence operatives set up networks of fake social media accounts to promote the Fort Detrick conspiracy, according to a US Justice Department complaint.

“China’s messaging got Washington’s attention. Trump subsequently coined the term “China virus” as a response to Beijing’s accusation that the US military exported COVID to Wuhan.

“That was false. And rather than arguing, I said, ‘I have to call it where it came from,’” Mr Trump said in a March 2020 news conference. “It did come from China,” the report read.

Reuters investigation showed the US anti-vaccine campaign extended beyond the Philippines into central Asia and the Middle East.

In those areas, anti-vax posts claimed the Sinovac shots should be forbidden under Islamic tradition because they can contain pork gelatin.

Although the operation began during the final year of the Trump administration, it continued for months after President Joe Biden took office.

X responds to Enquiry

According to the report, when contacted by Reuters about the accounts, X removed the profiles, “determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data.”

Vaccine misinformation

There is no suggestion in the report that the US anti-Sinovac campaign targeted Nigeria. Even if it did, it was inefficient. One of the earliest vaccines in Nigeria was the Sinovac vaccine. The Chinese government in 2021 d 470,000 doses of the vaccine to Nigeria.

China made its donation about three months before the US d 3.5 million Pfizer vaccines to Nigeria. China’s vaccine also preceded the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the UK to Nigeria, as reported by PREMIUM TIMES.

The Chinese at the time warned against disinformation, politicising issues surrounding COVID-19, and blaming China for the outbreak.

“COVID-19 is a health issue. We need cooperation. We need unity to overcome COVID-19.”

During the pandemic, there were several false claims against vaccination in Nigeria, such as claims that it causes infertility or other long-term health problems.

There were conspiracy theories that suggested the vaccine was a tool for population control or contained harmful substances, further fueling distrust.

Social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter were used to amplify this misinformation, often through unverified sources or misleading videos, including those of influential politicians.

COVID-19 in Nigeria

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Nigeria recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on 27 February 2020. By mid-2021, it had experienced multiple infections, with notable surges in cases.

As of July 2022, Nigeria had recorded 258,934 infections and more than 3,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

The country recorded 267,188 infections, 3,155 deaths, and about 259,953 recovery cases.
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