WHO Disinformation on the COVID Origin Story
The Wall Street Journal has published an "opinion" from the WHO that is political propaganda
Summary: I submitted the following essay on WHO disinformation regarding the COVID-19 origins, gain-of-function research, and the WHO’s relationship with the CCP/China four days ago to the Wall Street Journal with a request to be considered for publication in the “Opinion” section. Unfortunately, while the WSJ was willing to publish disinformation written on January 6th by the communications director of the World Health Organization, it was not willing to publish a counterpoint article documenting the nature and specifics of that WHO propaganda.
The WHO only investigated the “natural origins” of SARS-CoV-2 based on one Nature Medicine article - as, in their opinion, the science had already been settled. In retrospect, this decision appears to be actively developed and deployed disinformation (ergo false information distributed for political purposes).
The passage of time and multiple investigations have since revealed that this influential publication was the product of an active disinformation campaign coordinated in part by the NIH/NIAID under the direction and leadership of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal is unwilling to publish a brief opinion essay that discloses both the facts of this matter as well as the “public relations” propaganda being distributed by the communications director of the WHO on the eve of the inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump and confirmation hearings for HHS Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In this regard, it is notable that representatives of this incoming US administration have indicated an intention to once again withdraw US funding from the World Health Organization.
I hope that this “Opinion” piece published below and distributed through a variety of social media platforms will help clarify and mitigate the effects of the disinformation propaganda campaign currently being deployed by the WHO and its communications director, Gabriella Stern, and we encourage broad distribution through other outlets under standard creative commons terms and conditions.
The World Health Organization’s Disinformation Campaign
By: Robert W. Malone, MD, MS
(Submitted to the WSJ on January 11, 2025 and rejected by their lack of response after three business days - as per their website instructions)
On January 06, 2025, the Wall Street Journal published a letter from the communications director of the World Health Organization (Gabriella Stern), titled “WHO Responds on China, Covid-19 Origins,” stating that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has publicly asked the Chinese government to cooperate in finding the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and has consistently criticized China for not doing so. This position misrepresents public statements by WHO Director-General Tedros and his organization regarding the origins of SARS-CoV-2. This letter has the hallmarks of revisionist history promoted for political purposes, otherwise known as disinformation or propaganda, submitted to advance the political interests of the WHO. This coincides with incoming US Executive branch leadership interest in discontinuing US funding of the WHO.
In that letter, Ms. Stern cites (without link) a 120-page joint report written in 2021 by the World Health Organization titled: “WHO-convened global study of origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part Joint WHO-China Study Team report” as proof of WHO’s sincerity in trying to determine the origins of the virus.
The WHO World Health Assembly commissioned this report via resolution WHA73.1, which directed Tedros to only focus on finding the virus's zoonotic origins. The resulting WHO report does not provide any meaningful analysis of the theory that the virus could have been engineered, escaped or otherwise released from a laboratory source. In fact, the 120-page WHO report devotes less than one page to the theory that the virus could have come from a laboratory, before summarily dismissing the notion.
The specific directions from the Member State resolution adopted by “consensus” at the World Health Assembly in May 2020 called for the WHO to:
“identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts, including through efforts such as scientific and collaborative field missions, which will enable targeted interventions and a research agenda to reduce the risk of similar events occurring, as well as to provide guidance on how to prevent infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in animals and humans and prevent the establishment of new zoonotic reservoirs, as well as to reduce further risks of emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases”.
The WHO joint report summary findings on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 are as follows:
We did not consider the hypothesis of deliberate release or deliberate bioengineering of SARS-CoV-2 for release, the latter has been ruled out by other scientists following analyses of the genome.
This report was and remains the final analysis of the WHO on the origins of SARS-CoV-2. There have been no further official WHO communications on the subject of the origins of the virus. The joint report justifies disregarding a laboratory origin based on a single paper in Nature Medicine, titled “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2”, published in May 2020, which includes multiple factual misrepresentations and omissions.
In the letter to the WSJ, Gabriella Stern states that “the WHO’s position is and always has been that all hypotheses are still on the table until convincing evidence beyond a reasonable doubt is found.” This statement is clearly a misrepresentation, as evidenced by the report's scope being specifically restricted to the zoonotic origins. Furthermore, statements made by WHO Director-General Tedros over the ensuing years have only mildly rebuked China for not providing more data on the origins of COVID-19, and, in 2023, Tedros praised China for its openness in sharing data.
China and the WHO have a close working relationship, as demonstrated by the fact that almost all of the “experts” recruited to work on the 2021 joint report on COVID-19 origins came from China (see Annex 2 of the joint report). Furthermore, Annex 2 shows that the WHO relied on Peter Daszak of Ecohealth Alliance for expertise in animal health. The conflicts of interest of Dr. Daszak and China in this matter are self-evident.
Relevant to the above, in 2018 the WHO expanded its strategic partnership with China in a formal strategic agreement. This agreement specifically mentioned increasing China’s role in pandemic prevention. A separate agreement was signed to increase the number of Chinese nationals working at the WHO.
Recently, on December 30, 2024, the WHO issued a statement titled: “Milestone: COVID-19 five years ago.” What is notable about this statement is that WHO criticism of China is neither for China’s past or ongoing gain-of-function research, or its likely role in creating the virus, or for poor laboratory biosafety oversight and controls. That press release describing the WHO’s pandemic response to COVID-19 merely states that “We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19.” That is the sum of the criticism of China by the WHO five years after COVID began. That statement is as far as the WHO will go in criticizing Chinese actions during the COVID pandemic. The WHO doesn’t address (or refute) the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have been released purposefully. The WHO and WHO Director-General Tedros disregard all these issues. According to the WHO, China’s only transgression in this matter was insufficient data transparency.
Perhaps even more disturbing is that the various drafts of the WHO’s proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHRs) and the WHO’s proposed Pandemic “agreement” (which carries the weight of a treaty) neither address nor seek to mitigate the risks of gain-of-function research. The fact that the WHO and Director-General Tedros have evaded questions about the worldwide threat posed by gain-of-function research has the appearance of external political pressure on the WHO to avoid this topic.
In contrast to the failure of the WHO to address the proven global health risks inherent in “gain of function” biological engineering experimentation on current and potential human pathogens, during December 2024, the House Committee on Oversight, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on the COVID-19 origins released a 557-page final report that did address this biothreat. It cites strong evidence that the virus was likely manmade via gain-of-function research. Specifically, the Congressional report states that a:
“lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is most likely the origin of COVID-19. Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous gain-of-function research are incomplete, severely convoluted, and lack global applicability.”
Regarding China, the Congressional Committee writes:
“The WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was an abject failure because it caved to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and placed China’s political interests ahead of its international duties. Further, the WHO’s newest effort to solve the problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — via a “Pandemic Treaty” — may harm the United States.”
The World Health Organization via their director of communications is conducting yet another disinformation campaign aimed directly at Mainstream Media, the US Government and US citizens. The United States of America and President Trump will see through this ruse, and will not be fooled a second time.
It is time to withdraw US funding from the WHO, which no longer respects its original charter to protect global health in an objective and unbiased manner.
Great article. History reveals truths — “time will tell” as we know. Pause, step back, reflect, and learn.
There continues to be PsyOps. WSJ, NYTimes, and others. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop by saying that it all just infuriates me — however, I will follow Dr. Malone’s example of “living life” from day-to-day, and demonstrating calmness and truths to those I encounter.
Thank you Dr. Malone and Jill.
Thank you for trying, Dr.Malone.
I cancelled my decades long paid subscriptions to the WSJ and NYT early in the pandemic. I realized they were lying to me. Only in the West are we so ignorant that we pay for our own brainwashing.