21-06-2024, 12:30 PM
Philippine Senator Imee Marcos, who chairs the foreign relations committee, and House Representative France Castro filed resolutions in the country’s Congress this week to initiate the probe, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.
At the time of the secret US military operation, the primary vaccine option in the Philippines was China’s Sinovac inoculation. During the pandemic, the Philippines suffered among the worst Covid infection rates in the region, and officials struggled to persuade its citizens to get vaccinated.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said that the US military “uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the US, allies, and partners.” She also noted that China had started a “disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of Covid-19.”
Reuters could not determine what impact the military’s influence campaign had on public health in the Philippines. But some American public health experts say the propaganda program endangered lives. “I don’t think it’s defensible,” said Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. “I’m extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to hear that the US government would do that.”
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/202...ion/140756
At the time of the secret US military operation, the primary vaccine option in the Philippines was China’s Sinovac inoculation. During the pandemic, the Philippines suffered among the worst Covid infection rates in the region, and officials struggled to persuade its citizens to get vaccinated.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said that the US military “uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the US, allies, and partners.” She also noted that China had started a “disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of Covid-19.”
Reuters could not determine what impact the military’s influence campaign had on public health in the Philippines. But some American public health experts say the propaganda program endangered lives. “I don’t think it’s defensible,” said Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. “I’m extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to hear that the US government would do that.”
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/202...ion/140756