Some news leaves us dismayed and indignant. They reveal the dark side of power, the one that unscrupulously tramples on people’s rights and dignity in order to achieve its objectives. This is the case of the disturbing story brought to light by a Reuters investigation, which discovered how the Pentagon conducted a secret anti-vax and anti-vax disinformation campaign to discredit the Chinese anti-Covid vaccines produced precisely at the moment of greatest pandemic emergency.
A clandestine operation in which propaganda went so far as to jeopardize the lives of unsuspecting citizens, considered expendable pawns on the chessboard of global geopolitical competition between superpowers.
Objective: to undermine China’s credibility
The Reuters investigation sheds light on a top secret program called “Operation Warp Speed”*, launched by the Trump administration in 2020. The goal? Hinder China’s efforts to promote and distribute Chinese Covid vaccines in developing countries. According to the revelations, the Pentagon circulated a series of posts and memes on social media aimed at insinuating doubts about the effectiveness and safety of Chinese drugs, portraying them as “dangerous” and “untested”.
A disinformation campaign artfully orchestrated to undermine Beijing’s credibility and the trust of international public opinion, in what appears to be a ruthless propaganda war conducted by every means. “We weren’t looking at it from a public health perspective,” a senior military officer involved in the program bluntly admitted. “We were looking for a way to drag China through the mud.” Hence the bitter campaign against the “China virus”, as Trump defined it, and also against the “China Vax”.
* it wasn’t the first time. In 2019, Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning Chinese public opinion against his government.
Anti-vax propaganda against Chinese vaccines: lives at risk for geopolitical purposes
There is an even more disturbing and morally questionable aspect of the story. Because in pursuing its objectives of global influence, the Pentagon would not have hesitated to jeopardize the lives of unsuspecting citizens of the countries targeted by the campaign, considered as “collateral damage” expendable on the altar of competition between superpowers.
«Why did you do it while people were dying? We were desperate,” the doctor asked herself in disbelief Nina Castillo-Carandangformer advisor to the WHO and the Philippine government during the pandemic.
Yes, because among the countries most affected by American anti-vax propaganda against Chinese vaccines is the Asian archipelago, which in the first months of 2021 was facing over 100,000 infections with insufficient vaccines. Despite desperate calls for help, the United States chose to focus first on immunizing its citizens. Only to then launch a sneaky campaign to discredit the only vaccines available to Filipinos at that time: the Chinese ones, in fact.
Lethal propaganda
The consequences of this dirty war have been dramatic. In a country already shaken by vaccine skepticism, fueled by previous controversies, the American disinformation campaign has helped exacerbate public mistrust, hampering the efforts of health authorities. Suffice it to say that in June 2021, the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte he was forced to threaten prison for anyone who refused to be vaccinated.
“I’m sure that many people died of Covid when there was no need,” she commented bitterly Esperanza Cabral, the country’s former Health Secretary. Innocent lives sacrificed on the altar of a geopolitical clash with no holds barred.
US experts also condemn: “Indefensible”
Several American public health experts consulted by Reuters also condemned the operation outright, calling the campaign “indefensible” from an ethical and health point of view. “I am extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to learn that the US government could have done such a thing,” he said Daniel Luceyan infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
Raising more than one doubt on the lawfulness of certain practices which, under the pretext of “defending the national interest”, trample on fundamental rights and put human lives at risk in the name of questionable geopolitical objectives. Because ultimately, as he pointed out Greg Treverton, former president of the National Intelligence Council, “it should have been in our best interest to get as many vaccines to people as possible.” Including Chinese vaccines.
US propaganda against Chinese vaccines: lessons to be learned
This story casts a disturbing shadow on the power dynamics of the contemporary world. It reveals the dark and cynical side of global competition, in which everything seems fair in order to prevail over the opponent. Even at the cost of sacrificing innocent lives, considering them acceptable collateral damage in the chess game between empires.
What legitimacy can a “national interest” have that puts people’s health and lives at risk? What credibility does a State have that pursues its goals with such morally questionable means? And what trust can citizens place in institutions that are willing to do anything to win their war? These are questions that should shake the conscience and require deep reflection.
Because if there is a lesson to be drawn from this story, it is that no reason of state can justify trampling on human dignity. And that global health should always be above politics, in a collaborative effort that puts the common good of humanity at the center. Only in this way can we hope to face the epochal challenges we face. Starting from the fight against pandemics.
