Filipino health workers denounce alleged US psychological operation against Chinese COVID vaccine

MANILA: An alleged US covert operation to discredit Chinese vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled dismay and anger among Filipino health workers, who say their vaccine hesitancy has prevented them from saving more people among the tens of thousands of deaths.

A Reuters investigation published last week found that the US military launched a covert propaganda campaign at the height of the pandemic in the Philippines to spread disinformation and influence public discourse on the effectiveness of China's Sinovac vaccine as well as other vital aid provided by Beijing.

The operation, which began in 2020 and lasted until mid-2021, involved fake social media accounts – Reuters identifying at least 300 of them as X – intended to sow doubt about Sinovac among Filipinos. The Reuters report says the program is payback for Beijing's efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic.

Sinovac was the first COVID-19 vaccine available in the Philippines, where its rollout has been marred by fears over its alleged unreliability. Vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos was higher than other countries in the region, with almost half unwilling or unsure whether to get vaccinated in September 2021, according to a World Bank report .

Frontline health workers who served at the Philippine General Hospital, the country's main COVID-19 hospital, said it came at the cost of Filipino lives.

“If the misinformation propaganda was real… the general public's opinion on the importance of vaccines could have been affected by these troll farms. We know that Filipinos, especially the elderly, can easily believe what they read online,” Andro Carl Coronejo, a nurse at PGH's pediatric intensive care unit, told Arab News, referring to organizations that employ people to deliberately manipulate public opinion.

“I think if that hadn't happened, more people would have gotten more vaccinated sooner. Thus, more lives would have been saved.

The number of deaths from the pandemic has reached more than 66,000 in the Philippines, making it the second highest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

Bryan Elvambuena, who was an internal medicine resident at PGH in 2020, said many people could have survived without the misinformation. He believes this influenced his patients, many of whom had severe COVID-19.

“I was appalled and found it counterproductive and pathetic, as we tried our best to inform people to get vaccinated with the readily available vaccines,” Elvambuena said.

Filipino health workers recalled how the pandemic brought the country's health system to the brink of collapse, as doctors and nurses struggled to treat COVID-19 patients amid rising cases .

During one of her shifts as a nurse at PGH in 2020, Dianne de Castro said she was the only other person on duty caring for 24 patients, at least four of whom were hooked up mechanical ventilators and life support devices.

“It makes me wonder how we could have prevented or at least reduced the mortalities, the lives lost during the dark times of our generation. “I worked in healthcare for about four years before COVID-19 hit, but I have never been more scared to see so many moms, dads, siblings, parents and friends die every day after day,” De Castro told Arab News.

“This ploy to spread misinformation to the public angers me. I still consider Sinovac (as) an effective vaccine against COVID-19 and spreading this rumor is equivalent to cutting off the oxygen supply to a person who is out of breath and fighting for his life.

For her, the American propaganda campaign could be a “crime against humanity” which would deprive people of the chance to survive the pandemic and distance them from their families.

“My patients deserved so much better,” she said. “If this disinformation scheme was only motivated by politics and greed, those in power now have blood on their hands. »