Anti-Chinese Covid vaccine campaign

The United States military intelligence is known to stoop to hit the enemy. The critics would say that is the job of the military intelligence, and it is something that every country does. The ironical part is that the US as a democracy leaves enough cracks open to let out the secret story. The international news agency, Reuters, in its special investigation reveals that the US military intelligence at the Pentagon, the defence headquarters, has carried a propaganda war against the Chinese vaccine, Sinovac, in the Philippines, and in central and the Middle East. This is seen as a revenge act for China blaming the US for the spread of the Covid. The US was blaming China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) not taking immediate action when the pandemic broke out in Wuhan in November-December of 2019. The WHO did not declare it as an international emergency till the end of January 2020.

The hunt for the vaccine began in early 2020 itself, but no vaccine was ready till late 2020. According to Reuters investigation, the Pentagon started the anti-Chinese vaccine propaganda quite early in 2020. This would mean that even as the coronavirus broke out, the vaccines were rolled out. If that has been the case, then the Covid story becomes more diabolical than ever. It means that on the one hand, the virus spread like wildfire across geographies, and simultaneously, the anti-Covid vaccine became available too. Russia was ready with its Sputnik vaccine as early as June 2020. India was eager to be ready with the vaccine by August of that year. It is indeed the case that the Chinese vaccine human trials were going in many countries, even as the Sputnik human trials were on in Turkiye. But the worldwide vaccine counter happened only at the end of 2020. For a year after the outbreak of the pandemic, people and the doctors across the world were helpless.

The chronology does not take away from the pernicious propaganda style of the Pentagon. Whatever may be the lines of enmity, if the Sinovac vaccine was effective, it was not morally right to tell people that it is not safe and endanger the lives of millions. There is indirect confirmation from unnamed sources in the Pentagon and elsewhere that the anti-Chinese vaccine propaganda was a fact. The question that it spanned the last year of the presidency of Donald Trump, or that it was in use into the first few months of Joe Biden’s term in 2021 makes the two administrations culpable. But the revenge factor seems less convincing. The more probable reason could be that that the American pharma companies like Pfizer and Moderna were releasing their respective anti-Covid vaccines in the second half of 2020, and the Pentagon’s anti-Chinese Covid vaccine propaganda could be seen as helping the American commercial interests.

The Covid story worldwide remains unclear and incomplete in all its phases. There has been too much of an emphasis on tracing the origins of Covid, especially to China, with an intention to hold China responsible. Scientific investigation teams from the WHO had visited China but it was acknowledged that the coronavirus has muted so much that it would be impossible to nail the origins. But the more important factor is that the research on the corona viruses going on in the Chinese laboratories with American collaboration. And that story has not been fully revealed. If the Pentagon got into the act of launching a propaganda offensive against the Chinese anti-Covid vaccine, it would mean that there are many secrets lurking in the dark. There is need for an international investigation about the Covid pandemic. The WHO has lost its credibility of being an impartial body for many reasons. So, it is left to the newshounds to tell it all.