Senate probe on alleged US misinformation campaign vs Sinovac sought

A resolution has been filed in the Senate urging the Committee on Foreign Relations to investigate in aid of legislation the alleged secret campaign launched by the US military to discredit China's Sinovac vaccine.

Senator Imee Marcos, the committee's chairperson, filed the measure to verify if there was indeed an anti-vaccination and misinformation campaign orchestrated by the US military at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marcos said if the alleged campaign is true, "there is a need to determine the ramifications of the actions of the US Military, any potential breach of international law by the United States of America, and the possible legal recourse available to the Philippines, considering that such anti-vax and misinformation campaign threatens national security."

The lawmaker cited A Reuters' report which divulged that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US aimed to “sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid” that was being supplied by China to countries like the  Philippines.

Reuters said that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID-19 “misinformation” through X, formerly Twitter. It identified at least 300 accounts, almost all of which were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus.

"These numerous social media posts sowed mistrust against the Sinovac vaccine and other COVID-19 vaccines. The population's mistrust of COVID-19 vaccines in the early phases of the vaccination roll-out was made evident by the low vaccination rate," Marcos said, noting that in a televised address in June 2021, then-President Rodrigo Duterte had even threatened to arrest people who refused vaccination.

"The effort to fuel fear about Chinese inoculations risked undermining overall public trust in other government health initiatives, including US-made vaccines that became available later...These anti-vax misinformation campaigns gravely threaten national security issues and public health," Marcos stressed.

Department of Health spokesperson Albert Domingo earlier said the Reuters report "deserve[s] to be investigated and heard by the appropriate authorities of the involved countries."

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines, for its part, has accused the US military of "hypocrisy, malign intention and double standards" in response to the Reuters report. —KBK, GMA Integrated News