# The US military ran an antivax propaganda campaign in the Philippines **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 5, 2024, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758 "2024-07-05T06:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/1 "2024-07-05T06:02:07Z")
(I wasn’t sure where to put this. Politics? Great Debates? But I don’t really have anything to debate. The Quarantine Zone, since it’s Covid related? But it’s really not about the pandemic. So I thought that since I really just want to vent a bit, and couldn’t find a thread on this yet (?) I’d put it here.) So apparently, the US military has created hundreds of fake social media accounts spreading antivax-propaganda specifically targeted at the Chinese-developed Sinovac inoculation, according to research by [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/). I don’t really have much to offer here besides my frustrations. I’m not sure I should have expected otherwise, but still, this seems to me just an extraordinarily scummy thing to do—and yet, there’s been little response. I think antivax propaganda is among the most destructive idiocies to spread, and it may have cost the Philippines dearly, with their vaccination rates lagging behind most other countries. That alone translates possibly to thousands of lives lost, but the general promotion of antivax nonsense might be the more deleterious long-term effect. Sure, they only did this because China ran their own disinfo campaign blaming the US for the virus (and to curb Chinese geopolitical influence in the area). And I won’t even comment on the schoolyard-boy-nature of that justification, nor bring out the old canard about wrestling with pigs: nobody’s hands are clean in that sort of game. But it’s just such a low thing to do, to scare individuals away from potentially life-saving medication in a game of political one-upmanship. So I guess, fuck everyone involved in this. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/2 "2024-07-05T06:10:15Z")
This was reported a while ago. I was going to make a thread at the time, but figured I missed an existing one. It’s insane. I have it hard enough dismissing anti-vax shit all the time, and turns out that there is a conspiracy, so… how can am I supposed to convince people to trust the government and Big Pharma, after this shit? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/3 "2024-07-05T20:21:32Z")
I sort of doubt that the military did this entirely on their own. That’s something that’s more in the realm of geo-political strategy, and it’s likely that the military was tapped to run it because it’s sort of an application of force, even if it’s not the traditional one. Plus, the military’s got an existing cyberwarfare capability, and this is more or less similar, and it’s not like the State Department has enough capability to do it on their own. I’m betting the Trump administration was up to their eyeballs in the decision-making on this one- it strikes me as too cynical for the Democrats to do, and not the kind of thing that the military would do on their own. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/4 "2024-07-05T22:48:52Z")
> [@bump](#): > > it strikes me as too cynical for the Democrats to do, and not the kind of thing that the military would do on their own. Sounds like the CIA just being the CIA. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/5 "2024-07-06T00:45:56Z")
This was one of those stories that should have been a much bigger deal. I’d like to think it would have been a much bigger deal but for the ongoing dumpster fire of the US political system (but that’s probably being too optimistic about the US political system when not in the dumpster fire stage) Very senior (i.e. cabinet and/or chiefs of staff level ) people should at the very least lose their jobs over this. It somewhat reminds me of Operation Fast and Furious (except unlike that there was a not an angle conservatives to advance any of their cause celebres here) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/6 "2024-07-06T01:11:49Z")
What sort of propaganda are we talking, here? Was this “Sinovac is less effective than the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines”, or was this “Sinovac will make you grow a third ear and cause dog poop to be attracted to you”? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/7 "2024-07-06T06:05:04Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m betting the Trump administration was up to their eyeballs in the decision-making on this one- it strikes me as too cynical for the Democrats to do, and not the kind of thing that the military would do on their own. It would have to predate the availability of COVID vaccines for that to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/8 "2024-07-06T08:04:09Z")
Some example messages from the article, under the hashtag ‘China is the virus’: - “COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China.” - “From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.” - Plus, apparently spreading the rumour that the vaccine contains pork gelatin and hence would be forbidden for Orthodox Muslims There’s more examples in the article. > [@bump](#): > > I’m betting the Trump administration was up to their eyeballs in the decision-making on this one- it strikes me as too cynical for the Democrats to do, and not the kind of thing that the military would do on their own. > 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. So it started under Trump, but perhaps only in the sense that he authorized a general cyber campaign against China: > In 2019, Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, Reuters reported in March. As part of that effort, a small group of operatives used bogus online identities to spread disparaging narratives about Xi Jinping’s government. > The Pentagon’s anti-vax propaganda came in response to China’s own efforts to spread false information about the origins of COVID. The virus first emerged in China in late 2019. But in March 2020, Chinese government officials claimed without evidence that the virus 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. So the timeline seems to be, Trump authorizes cyber-warfare against China in 2019, the Pentagon launches an antivax propaganda program sometime after March 2020, and continues for some months into the Biden presidency. Not a great look for any of the involved parties… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/9 "2024-07-06T12:40:21Z")
The stupidity of this campaign is unbelievable. Heads should be rolling in Cyberspookville. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/10 "2024-07-06T15:31:59Z")
If the order came from the Trump admin, it’s possible that by the time Biden came in, the decision makers were already gone. It may have required some effort to track down the server and job that was running the spam accounts. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/11 "2024-07-06T15:41:39Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Sure, they only did this because China ran their own disinfo campaign blaming the US for the virus (and to curb Chinese geopolitical influence in the area). And I won’t even comment on the schoolyard-boy-nature of that justification, nor bring out the old canard about wrestling with pigs: nobody’s hands are clean in that sort of game. Yep, and this is another time where the “tat” is a lot bigger than the “tit” (so to speak). I was living in China through most of the pandemic, and there was only one time that I was aware of where a minister implied something about US athletes bringing the virus. There may well have been other times but they don’t seem to have been well-known if so. This is not to excuse such disinformation at all, but of course the accusations of the US government were much worse and much more frequent. Let alone basically sacrificing an ally’s citizens just to indirectly sorta-kinda hurt China. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/12 "2024-07-06T15:45:34Z")
Or more likely, it was just one program out of thousands and thousands, and it took several months for a Biden appointee to learn it existed and order it shut down. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/13 "2024-07-06T16:26:42Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > “From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.” Anti-vax AND anti-mask. I hope that, once they find who was behind this, they extradite him to the Philippines on murder charges. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/14 "2024-07-06T16:59:38Z")
I am afraid that would not be murder; manslaughter at the most. Do the USA and the Philipines have an extradition treaty at all? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/15 "2024-07-07T00:50:31Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Do the USA and the Philipines have an extradition treaty at all? Yes, for the past 30 years they have. [https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/104th-congress/executive-report/29/1](https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/104th-congress/executive-report/29/1) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/16 "2024-07-07T01:08:55Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@bump](#): > > > > it strikes me as too cynical for the Democrats to do, and not the kind of thing that the military would do on their own. > > Sounds like the CIA just being the CIA. Operation Northwoods originated in the military. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-military-ran-an-antivax-propaganda-campaign-in-the-philippines/1003758/17 "2024-07-07T17:28:01Z")
From the article: > 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 > 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. My suspicion is that there was enough press coverage of the upcoming Sinovac and its trials, that the Trump administration decided to engage in this nonsense as some sort of tit-for-tat thing, and the whole anti-vax/anti-mask thing fits in really nicely, considering they did the same sort of misinformation out in the open here in the US. As for why the Biden administration took so long, I don’t know. Charitable guesses are that there was enough other BS to sort through and put right, that this wasn’t really a priority until much later.