Trump Promises Tax Cuts At Business Roundtable With CEOs, Including Apple’s Tim Cook And JP Morgan’s Jamie DimonThe Department of Defense surreptitiously operated an anti-vaccine campaign aimed at Chinese vaccination efforts in the Philippines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a bombshellpublished Friday morning—suggesting U.S. officials cast doubt on the safety of vaccines abroad while frantically rolling out vaccines in the United States.
The effort centered around over 300 fake social media accounts allegedly intended to impersonate Filipinos wary of China’s vaccine program, whose posts included a handful of purported gripes over the quality of face masks and test kits, as well as China’s Sinovac vaccine, with the hashtag “Chinaangvirus” .
The accounts were removed from X after Reuters inquired into the posts, according to the report, with the Elon Musk-owned platform determining the posts represented a coordinated effort by a computer bot that used “activity patterns and internal data.” The investigation also found that effort extended beyond the Philippines into central Asia and the Middle East, where Reuters reported the anti-vax posts claimed the Sinovac shots should be forbidden under Islamic tradition because they can contain pork gelatin.
While the effort began during the final year of the Trump administration, it continued for months after President Joe Biden took office, Reuters reported, only ending after a 2021 Biden administration ban on the program.We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” toThe first U.S.