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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military 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 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, 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.
Good job of reporting, Reuters. Of course, it's just another reason for the rest of the world to hate our guts, but it's not morality that concerns me at the moment. What perhaps Reuters could investigate next is all the antivaxxing and antimasking sentiment that occurred here in the United States at the same time our enforcers were encouraging it in another country. Was what happened by design in the Philippines just happenstance in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or was it also by design? If so, who did the designing? The Pentagon? The Octagon? And for what purpose? I doubt it was to curb Chinese influence in Alabama.
The Pentagon? The Octagon? Some Paragon of virtue in the MAGA world?
ReplyDeleteMore like Parody of virtue, Mitchell.
DeleteThere's a lot of unpacking to be done about that whole crisis.
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DeleteDebra, I wonder if I'll have to continue to rely on foreign news sources like Reuters to do the unpacking. I mean, this story is barely getting any attention this morning in the U.S. media. The Pentagon has come out and admitted it, so it's not like it's "fake news",
DeleteThe BBC and Reuters supply a lot of news we never hear about.
ReplyDeleteEven when it's about our own country, Mike. Sigh.
DeleteI get a strange feeling when I learn from an overseas news source, or even bloggers at times, something about my country that I don't know. Usually it is inconsequential and a good example of something serious eludes me now.
ReplyDeleteThe (Manchester) Guardian is a well known and respected English newspaper which has its own tailored presence and staff in Australia, and it has certainly exposed serious matters that our own media hasn't.
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DeleteAndrew, I don't know about the Manchester Guardian, but the BBC, as Mike said, certainly has its own tailored presence and staff in the US. Just look at the lower right-hand corner of that Covid deaths chart. And it's just one of several charts and graphs and photos for BBC or Reuters or--hold on to your MAGA caps--Al Jazeera that I've shown over the years that had to with USA affairs. Something a outsiders notice things insiders don't.
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