FILIPINO political analyst and author Adolfo Paglinawan said the United States' alleged disinformation drive to undermine China's Sinovac drug at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the use of disinformation as a geopolitical weapon.

News agency Reuters recently released a report on the US black propaganda against Chinese vaccines.

Paglinawan, author of "No Vaccine for a Virus called Racism" and vice president for Internal Affairs of Asian Century Philippines Strategic, said that the Pentagon-run secret campaign to undermine China during the pandemic resulted in vaccine hesitancy and instilled the "China threat" among Filipinos.

"Had the US disinformation not deterred the vaccination rate from its launch, particularly by the Philippines by spreading messages that put doubt on the effectiveness of China-made anti-Covid vaccines, many more lives could have been saved," Paglinawan said in a media briefing on Thursday.

Commenting on the claims that Covid-19 originated from the communist state, he said that no nation was prepared for the pandemic; not even China.

Paglinawan said the US propaganda against Sinovac has turned into a national security threat.

In 2019, the World Health Organization recognized vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to global health despite clear evidence of vaccines' critical role in enhancing population health.

The Philippines has encountered both vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination sentiments because of the US propaganda, Paglinawan said.

As of April 13, the country has reported 4,140,383 Covid-19 cases and 66,864 fatalities.

Paglinawan urged the government and health organizations to conduct a transparent investigation on the issue.

Read The Rest at :