The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. June 17, 2024 Reuters: Pentagon Ran Covert Anti-Vax Smear Campaign Against China During Pandemic ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters has revealed the U.S. military ran a secret anti-vaccination campaign during the pandemic in the Philippines and other nations in an effort to sow doubt about COVID vaccines made by China. The Pentagon campaign began in 2020 under Donald Trump and continued into mid-2021 after Joe Biden took office. The Pentagon set up numerous fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to target audiences in the Philippines, Central Asia and the Middle East. The campaign also aimed to discredit masks and test kits made in China. One senior military officer involved in the campaign told Reuters, "We weren't looking at this from a public health perspective. We were looking at how we could drag China through the mud." .