(Yicai) June 17 -- Doubting and even wrongly attacking vaccines has resulted in huge disasters throughout history, Sinovac Biotech’s spokesperson said after a media report that the US Department of Defense spread false information about the Chinese vaccine maker’s Covid-19 jab.

Sinovac is a specialized company, and its mission is to make vaccines to eliminate human diseases and promote health, Yuan Youwei told Yicai today. Everyone should focus on their own specializations, Yuan added.

Following an investigation by Reuters, the news agency published a report on June 14 saying that the US DOD ran a secret social media program to discredit Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine in the Philippines in the first year after the outbreak of the pandemic. The campaign was later expanded to Central Asia and the Middle East, Reuters said.

Sinovac donated the first batch of 600,000 Covid-19 jabs to the Philippines in February 2021. They were the first Covid-19 inoculations the Philippines received after the outbreak.

When vaccines are stigmatized, the public will distrust them, leading to a decline in vaccination rates and weaker immune systems, which in turn can cause higher risks of infectious disease outbreaks, an industry insider told Yicai.

It can also lead to public distrust in the scientific community, public health institutions, and governments, blunting the effect of future health measures, the source said.

Editor: Futura Costaglione