US Acknowledges ‘Misstep’ With Anti-Vaccine Propaganda Effort in Philippines

US DISCOURAGED China’s Sinovac COVID Vaccine

At the height of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) admitted to participating in a propaganda operation in the Philippines to dissuade people from using China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine.

 

According to a Pentagon study that was not made public and was obtained by Reuters, the DOD launched a public relations campaign opposing the Chinese vaccine in the Philippines and other nations that were significantly reliant on China for public health supplies during the pandemic.

 

Government representatives from the United States expressed worry at the time that the Chinese Communist Party was making use of the COVID-19 outbreak to negotiate geopolitical agreements and weaken U.S. allies through aid. 

 

On June 25, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Department of National Defense received the DOD report that was referenced by the news outlet.

 

In the document, the Pentagon acknowledged that it “made some mistakes in COVID-related messaging” when it “did message Philippines audiences questioning the safety and efficacy of Sinovac.”

 

The anti-Sinovac effort was eventually “misaligned with U.S. priorities,” according to the dossier, which also explains why the operation ended in August 2021.

The Pentagon had not replied to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment as of the time of publication. 

 

On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will depart for a trip to the Indo-Pacific area. They are anticipated to travel to the Philippines, where they will have meetings with Enrique Manalo, the secretary of foreign affairs, and Gilberto Teodoro, the secretary of national defense.

 

Austin lauded the “progress” in the U.S.-Philippine relationship accomplished under his administration before the trip. 

 

“When I started as secretary, our ties with the Philippines were at a low point. We were even on the brink of losing our decades-old Visiting Forces Agreement,” he told reporters on Thursday. “But after three years of intensive engagement and partnership, we are in an entirely new chapter of our alliance.”

 

The World Health Organization reports that the Philippines was one of the most severely affected nations in Southeast Asia by the COVID-19 epidemic, with about 67,000 fatalities by 2024.

 

One of the biggest vaccine producers in China, Sinovac, started Phase III clinical trials in Brazil in July 2020 and by April 2021 had expanded the trials to Indonesia, Turkey, and the Philippines. Sinovac obtained numerous sizable contracts for emergency permission across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America throughout the clinical studies.

 

72 percent of Filipinos had received the entire primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine by November 2023, and 22 percent had received at least one booster shot.

 

The Philippine Senate Foreign Relations Committee looked into U.S. operations after the campaign’s initial media probe, which was released in June. Sen. Imee Marcos, the chair of the committee, questioned whether her nation had any legal options after calling the American military action “evil, wicked, dangerous, and unethical” during a hearing on June 25.