America's Defense Department Ran a Secret Disinfo Campaign Online Against China's Covid Vaccine (reuters.com) 280
"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..." reports Reuters.
"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."
Reuters interviewed "more than two dozen current and former U.S officials, military contractors, social media analysts and academic researchers," and also reviewed posts on social media, technical data and documents about "a set of fake social media accounts used by the U.S. military" — some active for more than five years. Friday they reported the results of their investigation: 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. Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus — Tagalog for China is the virus.
"COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don't trust China!" one typical tweet from July 2020 read in Tagalog. The words were next to a photo of a syringe beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections. Another post read: "From China — PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real." After Reuters asked X about the accounts, the social media company removed the profiles, determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data.
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, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China's vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China's shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law...
A senior Defense Department official acknowledged the U.S. military engaged in secret propaganda to disparage China's vaccine in the developing world, but the official declined to provide details. A Pentagon spokeswoman... also noted that China had started a "disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of COVID-19."
A senior U.S. military officer directly involved in the campaign told Reuters that "We didn't do a good job sharing vaccines with partners. So what was left to us was to throw shade on China's."
At least six senior State Department officials for the region objected, according to the article. But in 2019 U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed "a secret order" that "elevated the Pentagon's competition with China and Russia to the priority of active combat, enabling commanders to sidestep the StateDepartment when conducting psyops against those adversaries."
[A senior defense official] said the Pentagon has rescinded parts of Esper's 2019 order that allowed military commanders to bypass the approval of U.S. ambassadors when waging psychological operations. The rules now mandate that military commanders work closely with U.S. diplomats in the country where they seek to have an impact. The policy also restricts psychological operations aimed at "broad population messaging," such as those used to promote vaccine hesitancy during COVID...
Nevertheless, the Pentagon's clandestine propaganda efforts are set to continue. In an unclassified strategy document last year, top Pentagon generals wrote that the U.S. military could undermine adversaries such as China and Russia using "disinformation spread across social media, false narratives disguised as news, and similar subversive activities [to] weaken societal trust by undermining the foundations of government."
And in February, the contractor that worked on the anti-vax campaign — General Dynamics IT — won a $493 million contract. Its mission: to continue providing clandestine influence services for the military.
"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."
Reuters interviewed "more than two dozen current and former U.S officials, military contractors, social media analysts and academic researchers," and also reviewed posts on social media, technical data and documents about "a set of fake social media accounts used by the U.S. military" — some active for more than five years. Friday they reported the results of their investigation: 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. Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus — Tagalog for China is the virus.
"COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don't trust China!" one typical tweet from July 2020 read in Tagalog. The words were next to a photo of a syringe beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections. Another post read: "From China — PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real." After Reuters asked X about the accounts, the social media company removed the profiles, determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data.
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, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China's vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China's shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law...
A senior Defense Department official acknowledged the U.S. military engaged in secret propaganda to disparage China's vaccine in the developing world, but the official declined to provide details. A Pentagon spokeswoman... also noted that China had started a "disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of COVID-19."
A senior U.S. military officer directly involved in the campaign told Reuters that "We didn't do a good job sharing vaccines with partners. So what was left to us was to throw shade on China's."
At least six senior State Department officials for the region objected, according to the article. But in 2019 U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed "a secret order" that "elevated the Pentagon's competition with China and Russia to the priority of active combat, enabling commanders to sidestep the StateDepartment when conducting psyops against those adversaries."
[A senior defense official] said the Pentagon has rescinded parts of Esper's 2019 order that allowed military commanders to bypass the approval of U.S. ambassadors when waging psychological operations. The rules now mandate that military commanders work closely with U.S. diplomats in the country where they seek to have an impact. The policy also restricts psychological operations aimed at "broad population messaging," such as those used to promote vaccine hesitancy during COVID...
Nevertheless, the Pentagon's clandestine propaganda efforts are set to continue. In an unclassified strategy document last year, top Pentagon generals wrote that the U.S. military could undermine adversaries such as China and Russia using "disinformation spread across social media, false narratives disguised as news, and similar subversive activities [to] weaken societal trust by undermining the foundations of government."
And in February, the contractor that worked on the anti-vax campaign — General Dynamics IT — won a $493 million contract. Its mission: to continue providing clandestine influence services for the military.
unacceptable (Score:5, Funny)
Why would Hunter Biden's laptop allow this to happen during the Trump presidency?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know, but I'm starting to worry about this Hunter guy. We should immediately enact a law preventing anyone convicted of a crime from running for president.
Re:unacceptable (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm wondering why the second amendment crowd is silent on Hunter's rights being infringed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I'm wondering why the second amendment crowd is silent on Hunter's rights being infringed.
We haven't been. The law he broke is unconstitutional. It should be overturned on 2nd amendment grounds when he appeals.
Re: unacceptable (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Except for the NRA. The NRA wants everyone to have guns.
Re: unacceptable (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh no, they only want white people to have guns. Look what happened when the Black Panthers started to use their second amendment rights. Ronald Reagan and the NRA made that shit illegal in a hurry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
I know you're trolling, but a few points.
1. The Mulford act was passed in 1967. That was 55 years ago. These aren't the same people who passed that. Note that the Gun Control Act was also passed in the same time period (1968).
2. Not one gun owner I know would advocate for lying on the federal firearms form, or for having drug abusers have guns. This is all currently illegal and the gov't just needs to process criminals, like Hunter, not pass new laws.
Re: (Score:3)
It pretty clearly states, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
It also pretty clearly states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State". Or does that need to be ignored because it makes the amendment mean something else entirely?
Back in the late 1700s the meaning of "well regulated" meant "well trained". Also understand that state of the art firearms were muskets and cannon. I'm pretty sure that the 2nd was intended to mean "keep a firearm and know how to use it in case we need a militia" and not to mean "every idiot can have a gun"
Re: unacceptable (Score:4)
It pretty clearly states, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
It also pretty clearly states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State". Or does that need to be ignored because it makes the amendment mean something else entirely?
No, it doesn't need to be ignored because it's stating that in order to have a well regulated Militia, the right of THE PEOPLE shall not be infringed. It's clearly saying that all people, not just those in said Militia (which was made up of pretty much every male who could fire a gun back in those days), have the uninfringable right to bear arms. You have to realize that back then, there was no standing army, the people would be called up whenever there was a need for one.
Back in the late 1700s the meaning of "well regulated" meant "well trained". Also understand that state of the art firearms were muskets and cannon. I'm pretty sure that the 2nd was intended to mean "keep a firearm and know how to use it in case we need a militia" and not to mean "every idiot can have a gun".
My $0.02, YMMV...
It doesn't matter what you think, nor does it matter what type of arms were available then vs what are available now. What matters is the wording, which in this case is pretty clear -- the right of the people ... shall not be infringed.
Perhaps laws limiting the ammunition would be a way around this, such as not allowing everyone and their grandma to obtain nuclear materials, but I stand by my statement that the only way to deal with this, and stop the arguments, is to amend the Constitution.
Re: unacceptable (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I'm wondering why the second amendment crowd is silent on Hunter's rights being infringed.
I'm strongly in favour of gun control, but I think that law is wrong.
Consider two key characteristics of a drug addiction: poor judgment and denial.
You really think a checkbox saying you don't use drugs is going to stop anyone from purchasing one? I like the law to take guns away from an addict, but that's not a reason to throw the addict in jail.
Re:unacceptable (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
I do not know how to get news from Tick Tock.
I follow 4 of my girlfriends. I see their posts and music.
Sometimes an advertisement for cloth/fashion.
Re: unacceptable (Score:2)
Cause we are fucking stupid that's why
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know why you think he cares about the hookers' lives.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it is difficult to believe that you might encounter a man in his undergarments when you break into his home in the middle of the night.
PR (Score:4, Interesting)
I feel it's time for another Adam Curtis documentary.
History of Public Relations [wikipedia.org]
We've had about 150 years of determined and organised effort to influence what we think.
So why is the article itself propaganda? (Score:4, Insightful)
They're bringing facts, that there was a campaign against the Chinese and Russian vaccines - which has as much chance as increasing general vaccine hesitancy as it has for people switching to US vaccines - but they're also piling a lot of propaganda in the same article.
It's all being described as a counteroffensive - which is bullshit,
and it's presented as 'not controlled very well'
The reality is, everything is drenched in PR all the time.
Re: (Score:3)
One thing you can be sure of is that whatever the USA's illustrious leaders accuse their "enemies" of doing, you can be sure that the USA military are doing it to them.
Re:So why is the article itself propaganda? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting on many levels.
If you were one of the people who claimed that the Chinese COVID vaccine was dangerous or ineffective, maybe you now realize you were influenced by US intelligence who saw you as a useful idiot.
The US government contracted this work out, and the contractor botched it. They wanted it to appear that the misinformation was coming from somewhere else, so next time you hear "hackers from X" or "disinformation traced back to Y", just remember that there is a good chance it's misdirection.
People very likely died or had their health ruined by these efforts. It would be hard for them to sue, but in theory they might be able to. Certainly won't improve trust in the US or reduce animosity towards it in the target countries.
It's yet another example of the US not valuing the lives of non-US citizens at all, and doing everything it can to scupper China bar actually competing with it.
Re:So why is the article itself propaganda? (Score:5, Insightful)
"another example of the US not valuing the lives of non-US citizens at all"
America has a long history of not valuing the lives of its own citizens so expecting them to care much about the lives of others when there's an opportunity to undermine a opponent is a bit unreasonable
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
And I'd add that the problem are compounded because the people who aren't gullibly going along with all the stories out there are sidelined as untrustworthy.
You end up with an orgy of mindless zealots.
Re: (Score:2)
The west has created a massive PR culture with no bookkeeping.
It's literally the CIA's job to keep track of what's true and what's not.
I swear every global policy needs to involve a briefing by the CIA, not that Congress members would believe them. We just let politicians spew out regurgitated social media posts without consequences. And we don't even know how many of them know they are lying. Some are just doing it because populism makes them popular.
Re: (Score:2)
Russia/Putin is very very very bad. Losing? Not so much. Stalemate situation that Ukraine doesn't have the population to handle over the long haul is a more accurate description. Russia has 10x the population Ukraine has; it takes boots on the ground to hold land. The small number of somewhat more modern weapons the west has sent is insufficient to win a war. They're not intended to. Western leaders have made it abundantly clear the goal is to bleed Russia dry, not beat them quickly on the battlefiel
Re: (Score:2)
Russia has 10x the population Ukraine has
Ukraine has a population of 37 million, Russia has a population of 147 million. Roughly a factor 4 difference.
Re: (Score:2)
How many available to fight? And Putin is hiring foreign mercenaries and emptying the prisons.
Whereas U,raise currently has 37m but before the war had 44m. 7m people left the country. How many you think were fighting age?
But let's go with 4x. Nothing changes. Ukraine win a war of attrition with 1/4 the population. It's just math.
Re: (Score:2)
But let's go with 4x. Nothing changes.
Well other than that Russia is losing troops 4x as fast as Ukraine. Russia can't afford to wait this one out and win on attrition because they risk running out of troops first.
It's just math.
Math that it seems you have not done correctly.
Re: (Score:3)
Stalemate situation that Ukraine doesn't have the population to handle over the long haul is a more accurate description. Russia has 10x the population Ukraine has; it takes boots on the ground to hold land.
Russia has about 3.8 times the population of Ukraine and is losing troops at a rate of about 3.5x Ukraine. If Russia is willing to fight to the absolute last man, then I suppose they can hold out slightly longer, but attrition is hitting Russia really hard right now.
The small number of somewhat more mod
Re: (Score:2)
I answered the population question for someone else. I'm not going to copy/paste across threads.
Yes, the west essentially speaks with one voice and the behavior of all major western powers is essentially the same.
Every single one has sent some money and a small number of weapons and a bit of non-military support. Of course there are factions in every country who want this or that or whatever. The official policies and actions of those nations are what they are regardless of what some random people in a s
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the west essentially speaks with one voice
You're delusional.
Every single one has sent some money and a small number of weapons and a bit of non-military support.
Given that "some" covers a variation of about a factor of 50 in terms of amounts relative to GDP, that covers basically all of the options other than sending troops, so you've managed to say that the west are all the same because each one of them did something.
Re: (Score:2)
Russia has about 3.8 times the population of Ukraine and is losing troops at a rate of about 3.5x Ukraine. If Russia is willing to fight to the absolute last man, then I suppose they can hold out slightly longer, but attrition is hitting Russia really hard right now.
Only if you take the most propagandaish numbers you can find.
More realistic estimates are about 2:1 in favor of the Ukrainians.
Even down to the last man, they still lose. The entire world can do this math, and that's why pressure is started to be exerted to get them to negotiate.
Because Putin might actually be fucking crazy enough to fight the Ukrainians down to the last man.
Re: (Score:2)
> Russia has 10x the population Ukraine has
And how much larger is Russia's population versus Afghanistan? (Or our own, versus Afghanistan's or Vietnam's? Or the old British Empire's versus Afghanistan?) Ukraine doesn't really have to outright "win" per se. I don't think Zelensky even imagines that Ukrainian tanks will ever be rolling down the streets of Moscow. What they need to do is make Russia lose. They just have to bleed the Russians and make them suffer... and KEEP bleeding them and making th
Re: (Score:2)
I can only imagine how things would be different if those same resources were used to promote the Chinese and Russian vaccines. It would have been mutually beneficial and should not have been politicized. All it did was make everyone skeptical of all the vaccines.
The truth is, the relative efficacy is way down on the list vs. producing enough vaccine for the globe.
I guess propaganda doesn't work very well on me, but crying wolf about everything China and Russia does being bad really dilutes veryreal probl
Re: (Score:2)
It's all being described as a counteroffensive - which is bullshit,
Unsure how that's bullshit.
This doesn't make what we did right [rferl.org], but it certainly satisfies the literary requirement for using the word "counter" in front of your response.
Biggest complainers of disinfo biggest sources of (Score:3, Informative)
Iraq War Classic (babies in incubators)
Iraq War 2.0 (Saddam planned 911, WMD's)
Qaddafi gave his troops Viagra to rape more (never happened)
Assad gassed his own people the DAY weapons inspectors arrived
40 beheaded babies on 10/7 (debunked by Israeli media)
Rapes on 10/7 (again debunked by Israeli media)
Hunter Biden Laptop "Russian disinformation" yet was used as evidence at his trial which means government is claiming its accurate.
And so on.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably modded down by people who people who are very worried about Russian and Chinese propaganda.
Re: (Score:3)
> Rapes on 10/7 (again debunked by Israeli media)
Got a link for that? The UN says it happened. The same UN that is very strongly anti-Israel.
Re:Biggest complainers of disinfo biggest sources (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm very anti-what-the-fuck-is-going-on-in-Gaza right now, and those rapes definitely happened.
The evidence is overwhelming.
I don't see what the point in lying about it is- it's not like the rapes justify the fucking body part mill the IDF has made out of Gaza.
That being said, the UN isn't anti-Israel.
They're anti fucking civilian murder at the hands of an ethnostate with ministers of its government literally getting on TV and saying that the Gazans are all guilty, down to the last man, woman, and child.
You have to be willfully blind to not see what's going on there for what it is- ethnic cleansing.
Re: (Score:2)
What connection between those claims are you asserting? Are you listing things you have believed? Are you "debunking" the most distorted claims that you can find, and then attributing those claims to some ambiguously large group where most members make different, substantiated, claims?
For example, Basher al-Assad continued to use poison gas against his own citizens from 2013 and earlier [reuters.com] and every year until at least 2018 [bbc.com]. But if you add the arbitrary and unsourced qualifier "the DAY weapons inspectors ar
Re:Biggest complainers of disinfo biggest sources (Score:5, Interesting)
You guys and that fucking laptop. It's been six years now and the only thing they found is Hunter likes hookers, guns, and drugs. No state secrets, no bombshells, absolutely nothing of interest.
He was charged with lying on an ATF form and not paying taxes. If his last name wasn't biden he's have the support of the MAGA crowd.
Re: (Score:2)
Iraq War Classic (babies in incubators)
Iraq War 2.0 (Saddam planned 911, WMD's)
Qaddafi gave his troops Viagra to rape more (never happened)
Assad gassed his own people the DAY weapons inspectors arrived
40 beheaded babies on 10/7 (debunked by Israeli media)
Rapes on 10/7 (again debunked by Israeli media)
Hunter Biden Laptop "Russian disinformation" yet was used as evidence at his trial which means government is claiming its accurate.
And so on.
Quoting this excellent post to make it harder to memoryhole into -1.
In summary (Score:5, Insightful)
The USA starts pissing-contest while people are dying.
Tell me again, which country is dishonest and imperialistic.
Twitter account @5gcoronavirus19 drove the idea that 5g is tracking vaccines (not phones). If that copious bullshit is repeated by someone with hundreds of thousands of fans (Eg. R Kennedy Jr and D Trump), it becomes 'fact'. For the most part, conspiracy theories are a matter of persistence and time. Unfortunately, in the USA, small government means hundred of municipal governments must spend time defending themselves from loud-mouthed self-interest groups (Eg. Mums for Liberty).
Re: (Score:2)
Tell me again, which country is dishonest and imperialistic.
Both, apparently, since both were running disinfo campaigns aimed at the other.
Re: (Score:2)
What's wrong with "loud mouthed self interest groups"?
Some people call that freedom of expression. It's an 1A thing.
Are there any "loud mouthed self interest groups" you support because you share their beliefs?
Re: (Score:2)
Only differentiated by power levels, not desire. I don't expect a whole lot out of Honduras.
Re: (Score:2)
On absolute terms when dealing with foreign powers? Probably. But Russia and China both make a good effort at it with the resources they have. China also does it in a different way since their ability to control the media is more limited. They're more about belt and road economic rape and corruption than media abuse which they're laughably bad at in comparison.
Each plays to their strengths.
So there's no deep state (Score:4, Insightful)
Honest. There's no parts of the government acting without meaningful accountability. We live in a democracy...
For those who need reminding, the CIA got caught hacking Congress. It first lied, then admitted it had been naughty. But no actual sanctions were applied to those who had demonstrated a total lack of commitment to the US constitution etc etc.
Today is the anniversary of the Watergate breakin. The fall out from that took down many of the most powerful people in the USA at the time, some even served prison time because of it. These days it seems that such accountability is never happening; shooting the messenger (Snowden, Asange) is far more fashionable.
https://www.vice.com/en/articl... [vice.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Honest. There's no parts of the government acting without meaningful accountability. We live in a democracy...
Meaningful accountability? Like the stuff that Snowden exposed?
Face it, the US government has people in it doing whatever the fuck they want to do and only occasionally is anyone able to ask any meaningful questions. There is no meaningful accountability; otherwise, Clarence Thomas wouldn't be accepting gifts from billionaires on cases that he is sitting on.
Fuck that noise and fuck your claims. We can see the reality of the situation despite the fact that we are so stupid and unaware that there is no possib
Always pointing fingers but... (Score:2, Flamebait)
Inept at Foreign Affairs (Score:5, Insightful)
Disinformation operations should never target things like humanitarian aid, health care and similar areas.
If found out you are sure to make long term enemies.
All of this I blame squarely on the clumsy, inept and malicious foreign policy of the Trump administration.
Their poor handling of the vaccine situation to begin with.
Their poor handling of the diplomatic relation with the Philippines.
And then their green lighting of an influence operation like this.
I blame ALL Americans for electing these clowns. Doubly so if they re-elect him in November.
Most of the world does not care about your internal politics, about Democrats vs Republicans.
The world only sees what the United States of America does on the world stage.
It is your job as American voters to make sure your elected representatives behave as adults.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Inept at Foreign Affairs (Score:4, Informative)
I don't think you understand how governments operate.
No, that "they did it without permission" shit doesn't fly.
When it comes to military campaigns to attack the US' largest rival power, even in clandestine, non-violent ways, there's no way the US military takes action without someone at least briefing the Commander in Chief, which means there's no way Trump isn't bearing the blame here. Either he knew about it and approved it or he was such an incompetent commander in chief that he allowed the US military to engage in clandestine attacks on a foreign government without his authorization.
IMO the second option is far, far worse. It's one thing for a military commander to make a questionable judgment call. Bad decisions happen. It's dramatically worse for him to completely lose control of his command, especially when that command is the world's most powerful military force.
If it turns out that the military conducted these operations in secret, hiding them from civilian oversight, then courts martial of everyone involved are in order -- even if you think the disinfo campaign was a good idea. I seriously doubt that is the case, though. The US military brass is scrupulously careful about ensuring civilian oversight. I think it's far more likely that Trump either approved the campaign or ignored the briefing and assented to something he didn't understand. Either way, the buck stops with Trump.
Re: (Score:2)
I call BS - the US IC was broadly allied against Trump throughout his entire presidency. This extended to the Military as well. We have Mark Milley's own statements to the effect he did not tell the President everything, and took 'precautions'. Not to mention the entire existence of #resistence - which basically amount to a secret campaign against the Presidents policy by insubordinate federal employees.
We have literally no idea what President Trump knew or when he knew as member of the public on this is
Re: (Score:2)
You were off to a good start but I had to stop. The wall of text literally made my vision blur out.
Please use line breaks.
Re: (Score:3)
All of this I blame squarely on the clumsy, inept and malicious foreign policy of the Trump administration.
Look, I don't mind if you hate on Trump, but not like this. Did you forget about how Bin Laden was caught? You should feel shame for implying that this was a Trump thing when we have plenty of lifetime unelected bureaucrats who really run the show.
Re: (Score:2)
So you won't elect someone from the party of "Democrats are the real racists" who wants to jail Biden on Trumped up charges?
Re: (Score:2)
Yet he's also the mastermind secretly directing the DOJ and various state governments to prosecute Trump. I hope M. Night Shyamalan is paying attention. This could be the basis for Split Four: Biden the Beast.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm only interested in making sure we don't file charges for enfeebled and forgetful kindly old grandpa types storing stolen classified documents in their garage at home. That would be mean.
Re: (Score:2)
And it worked (Score:5, Informative)
I have family in the Philippines. They are very social, and get a lot of their news and share their opinions on social media. Back during COVID, they all believed that Sinovac was junk. It didn't help the narrative when China gave it to the Philippines for free, which made everyone there skeptical of its efficacy if it was being given away.
I also remember my sister-in-law telling me that the Pfizer vaccine, when it first came to the Philippines, cost $250 (a hefty sum...about 50% of the average monthly income for a Filipino). The vaccine was being given to the Philippines for free, but because of scarcity, and because the government controlled distribution, that was the cost of the bribe needed to get your hands on it. But the cost just made people want it more, and believe that it was worth the money, compared to a free Chinese counterpart.
(Another contribution to this problem was a cultural one. There's two kinds of consumer appliances in the Philippines, Chinese ones and Japanese / Korean ones. The Chinese appliances are half the cost but break down constantly, while the Japanese / Korean ones are expensive but much more dependable. The free Chinese vaccine, pitted against the expensive American one, just played right into this narrative.)
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. When there is a campaign to discredit something, in this case a vaccine, it does generally not build up the distrust from scratch, it mainly feeds and boosts what is already there, and often does so just by infiltrating the existing networks which already have erratic mass behaviour by themselves. I'd even say you could get the same results without any propaganda campaign.
Re:And it worked (Score:4, Informative)
I have family in the Philippines too. A cousin basically told me that there was tons of shade being thrown at Chinese vaccines, and that no one wanted to take them, but he didn't care because it would be better than nothing. He later on said taking the vaccine probably saved his life because he was later hospitalized with covid, and would have had far worse symptoms if he hadn't taken sinovac.
The article further notes that the Philippines had a far less vaccinated rate than the rest of SE Asia, and the main reason why Philippines even got the vaccine from China was because Duterte personally asked Xi Jinping if he could provide vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine wouldn't arrive in the Philippines until 2022 or so, because the US had an America first policy.
Will this rate as fake news? (Score:2)
Similar to trying to catch Saddam (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
UN NGOs are full of informants, spies and thief's.
Re: Similar to trying to catch Saddam (Score:2)
An absolutely unacceptable crime (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I 99% agree with you.
"more opportunities for an even more deadly variant" isn't quite right. It _could_ happen but basic Darwinian rules require a virus to become less deadly to continue spreading. The common cold will be the last thing we conquer; it also only kills people who are already deathly ill from something else. Ebola and other nasty bugs with high kill rates don't spread very far before they burn out, however.
In theory we could get a fast spreading cold like virus that kills that would infect
Re: (Score:2)
I completely agree. Evil crap like this needs to be up there with terrorism, war crimes and genocide and needs to disqualify anybody doing it from being viewed as a civilized nation. There is no margin for this crap when fighting an enemy of all of humanity.
Re: (Score:2)
I would call this kind of activity a crime against humanity - not only do innocent people suffer immediate harm from disinformation, but populations then suffer ongoing harm from a legitimately earned distrust of the authorities that should be protecting them.
Sinovac (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Let's break that down from just the abstract.
OK, so people who got Sinovac were 2.37x more likely to be infected. But turning it around, people w
Re: (Score:3)
Impossible to get because of playing the wrong politics game. But if the US invoked the Defense Production Act and handed the full process over to the WHO and contracted it out to labs around the world, the problem would have disappeared relatively quickly.
The people making the vaccines might owe a reasonable royalty on the patents, but they wouldn't get sued for damages because Pfizer/Moderna can't prove damages if they didn't have sufficient product to sell - there were would have been no lost sales.
Soooo, "China baaaaad"? (Score:3)
Looks to me like the DoD has caused a lot of unnecessary death and maiming here and is morally deep in the black. If you claim moral superiority, you need to act like it and not do the same evil as the ones you feel you are superior too.
Yes, the vaccine was not the best performer, but it still worked.
Throw shade lol (Score:2)
I had to laugh at the throw shade quote as it sounds more like a 13 year old gamer than a senior officer.
Biden seem to have pulled the plug (Score:2)
Ministry of True Truthful Verified FACTS (Score:2)
Vacine diplomacy (Score:3)
Fact is that the Sinovac vaccine was actually quite decent! Not quite as good as he mRNA ones, but still 'good enough'. It didn't help their image that China kept on locking cities down when the rest of the world was getting back to normal. But the data is quite clear that the vaccine as such was 'okay'. (I had to look it up right now, because I was under the wrong assumption that it was quite crappy).
But you have to remeber that back then, there was A LOT of "vaccine diplomacy" going on. I especially felt bad for the Russian pharma researchers who came up with a viable vaccine quite quickly - only to have Putin jump the gun and claim it was perfect, even before the accelerated trials were done. I bet the researchers in the trenches weren't too happy about that!
So back then, every country wanted to show off how great they are and gain international clout and gain geopolitical influence by having the best vaccine, and sometimes sending them to other countries before vaccinating their own population - China did a lot of that, too.
So in that context, some disinfirmation campaigns are fair game, I think. I am quite sure that many western antivaxers also got support or boosts from other country's three-letter-agencies.
Re:"Social media analyst" (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, because we all know ignoring one of the most widely reaching communication systems with major impact on global populations is preferable to understanding it. /s Like... not just /s but holy shit your comment is stupid level of /s
It's Chinese disinformation (Score:2)
The sinovax was a largely unprotective flop. The Chinese are trying to turn what where public service announcements to avoid it into something nefarious. And this "social media analyst" just gobbled it up without thinking. A useful idiot
Re:It's Chinese disinformation (Score:5, Informative)
It is true that it was only marginally effective at preventing infection- but hey, keeping people out of the hospital was the #1 concern with the disease, and there, it succeeded.
Why are you spreading misinformation?
Was this actually a brilliantly satirical post?
Re: (Score:3)
Was this actually a brilliantly satirical post?
Or maybe someone at the Pentagon continuing to do their job?
Re: (Score:3)
Oh, I'm sorry- did I step on your soapbox?
Re: (Score:3)
Re:"Social media analyst" (Score:4, Funny)
There's a bullshit job title for you...
If nothing else, it's pretty strong evidence that we are never gonna run out of jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a bullshit job title for you...
And you came to that conclusion, because "a set of fake social media accounts used by the U.S. military" had so little impact, or that social media in itself is practically harmless?
I can think of a LOT of other actual bullshit titles, but that one certainly seems to have a large enough demand. You're sure as fuck not gonna question if the data set isn't big enough with literally billions of users.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
It appears the US can no longer keep a fucking secret to save their lives?!?!?
A secret mission, isn't so secret when you come out and talk about it....
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Sorry, 6th.
Re: (Score:3)
As tragic as the day unfolded, turning it into a military confrontation would have galvanized things even more and possibly started a civil war. It turned into a circus when they didn't get they type of confrontation they wanted. Regardless, she didn't have anything to do with whether they were called in. That is up to the Capitol Police Board or the Commander in Chief. She is neither of those things.
Re: (Score:2)
If J6 was Antifa, then why would Trump offer to pardon everyone? https://www.npr.org/2024/01/04... [npr.org]
That means Trump supports Antifa.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the same military that in conjunction with Nancy Pelosi refused to authorize the deployment of the Nat Guard Jan 20th
That's strange, I heard it was a civil protest that did not need any law enforcement action.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm surprised he wasn't shipping bleach down to the Philippines.
I wouldn't rule that out, just yet.
Re: (Score:3)
sounds more like a CIA thing though?