Above: Vaccination work in the Philippines has been slow due to the spread of false information by the U.S. military. Below: On February 28, 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine donated by China arrived in the Philippines. \File photo

A spokesperson for Sinovac responded on the 15th that stigmatizing vaccines would have a series of extremely serious consequences, such as reducing vaccination rates, causing disease epidemics, causing social panic and a crisis of trust in public health. Reuters pointed out that although it is impossible to determine the specific impact of the US military’s propaganda campaign, the Philippines’ vaccination work in 2021 did encounter resistance, indirectly leading to more people being infected and dying.

In July 2020, then-President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines asked China to give priority to the Philippines’ vaccine needs, and China quickly agreed. At the end of February 2021, the first batch of Sinovac vaccines arrived in the Philippines. However, anti-vaccine propaganda on social media has led some Filipinos to be reluctant to take the Chinese-aided vaccines. In June 2021, Duterte said in a televised speech: “You make your own choice, either get vaccinated or I’ll put you in jail. There is a crisis in this country, and I’m angry that so many people are ignoring the government’s persuasion.” At that time, only 2.1 million people out of the Philippines’ 114 million population had completed vaccination, and the number of deaths had reached 24,000. Data released in 2022 showed that the number of deaths related to the epidemic in the Philippines exceeded 100,000 in 2021.

Galanda, who served as an adviser to the World Health Organization and the Philippine government during the epidemic, questioned the United States: “Why did you do this when people were threatened with death? We were desperate at the time… We did not have the ability to develop our own vaccines, and the US military’s propaganda campaign rubbed more salt into our wounds.”

This is not the first time that the United States has disregarded the lives of Filipinos for its own interests. Recently, the United States has been increasing its military presence in the Philippines and inciting the Philippine government to confront China in the South China Sea. Former Philippine Senator Tatad warned that if the Philippines goes to war with China under the instigation of the United States, it will be a “stupid suicide act.” The Filipino people are also disgusted with the US intervention and have held demonstrations many times, demanding that the US military leave the Philippines.