The Pentagon officials that greenlit this program should be fired.

Just absolutely insane. I've not been this infuriated since the time that the CIA used a children's Hepatitis B vaccine program in Pakistan to find Osama Bin Laden.

"The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.

The military program started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found."

Seriously what was the plan here? Surely they knew this would come out at some point and completely reverse and further undermine whatever effect they were hoping to achieve. It is obviously morally grotesque, but even just in terms of stated aims it is dumb as hell.

It is even worse when you consider the context of the country.

The Philippines is a country that has had persistent vaccine hesitancy and refusal ever since the 2017 Dengvaxia dengue vaccine scandal. They've been rocked by measles, diphtheria, and polio outbreaks ever since. The coronavirus pandemic likewise hit them hard given this pre-existing vaccine hesitancy.

I still can't really fathom that the Pentagon under Trump thought to add gasoline to that fire to undermine China.