A new report suggests the US military targeted Filipinos with anti-vaccine messages on social media, part of a broader campaign to discourage people in the Philippines from adopting China's vaccine against COVID-19.
The campaign in 2020 and 2021—an effort to counter Chinese influence in the South China Sea—involved more than 300 accounts, with tens of thousands of followers, across platforms like X (then Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. Florida-based accounts promoted messages suggesting China's vaccine included pork gelatin, an ingredient Muslim communities generally forbid but one many religious figures find permissible in instances like vaccines. An estimated 6.4% of Filipinos are Muslim. China's Sinovac—the company behind its vaccine—denied using pig derivatives.
Sinovac, which uses a whole inactivated virus in its vaccines, has proved less effective at combating COVID-19 than US-made vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which rely on mRNA technology. See a comparison of the vaccines here.
Comments