The World Council for Health is a pseudo-medical organisation dedicated to spreading misinformation to discourage COVID-19 vaccination, and promoting fake COVID-19 treatments.[1]
 | |
| Formation | September 2021 |
|---|---|
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Headquarters | Bath, England |
| Website | https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/ |
The organization's online appearance is that of a mainstream health organization.[2] It appears to have been formed in September 2021 and its published leadership contains people which an Australian Associated Press fact check described as "figures who have promoted unfounded conspiracy theories".[3] The group was founded by Jennifer A. Hibberd and Tess Lawrie, an obstetrician and founder of the "BIRD Group", which erroneously promotes ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.[4]
The World Council for Health is affiliated with Children's Health Defense, an antivaccine association led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.[5]
Activities
The World Council for Health promotes misinformation linking COVID-19 vaccination with death.[6] In 2021 the group promoted claims on social media of a "multi-system inflammatory condition" which they called "Post-COVID injection syndrome". The condition is however not recognized in medical science, and there is no evidence any such condition is caused by vaccination.[7]
In May 2022 the group was involved in a conference in Bath, England which Vice World News described as a meeting of the "biggest names in the global anti-vax and coronavirus conspiracy scenes". The local authorities withdrew permission to use their venues after reviewing the publicity of the World Council for Health falsely claiming that COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe.[8]
In July 2022, the US-cardiologist Peter McCullough, an anti-vaccine advocate, falsely claimed that vaccinations have been globally recalled due to more than 40,000 deaths worldwide at the request of the World Council for Health. However, the Food and Drug Administration had not listed any recalls for the four Covid-19 vaccines authorised in the US, as confirmed in an email by Abby Capobianco, an agency spokesperson, to AFP.[9]
The UK cardiologist Aseem Malhotra called in September 2022 for the "immediate and complete suspension of Covid-19 vaccine” in a press conference with the World Council for Health, because of "a greater risk of serious adverse events from the vaccines than being hospitalised from COVID-19", repeating his conclusions in a narrative review article in the Journal of Insulin resistance. However, his findings were based on anecdotal evidence, low-quality studies and cherry-picking, where mainly studies that suggested a negative effect of COVID-19 vaccines were cited, and the broader body of evidence showing that the vaccines are safe and effective was not acknowledged.[6][10][11]
The group promotes ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, although research has determined it is ineffective for this purpose.[12]
See also
Notes
- ^ Kerr et al. 2022, Merlan 2022a, Merlan 2022b.
- ^ Merlan 2022a.
- ^ AAP 2022.
- ^ Kerr et al. 2022, Hume 2022, Merlan 2021
- ^ Merlan 2021
- ^ a b Carballo-Carbajal 2022.
- ^ AAP 2022.
- ^ Hume 2022.
- ^ AFP 2023.
- ^ Malhotra, Aseem (26 September 2022). "Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine - Part 1". Journal of Insulin Resistance. 5 (1). doi:10.4102/jir.v5i1.71.
- ^ Goldhamer, Marisha (14 October 2022). "UK cardiologist misleads on Covid-19 vaccine safety". Fact Check. AFP. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
- ^ Merlan 2022b; for effectiveness see Popp et al. 2022.
References
- AAP FactCheck. "Post COVID-19 injection syndrome is only 'garbled misinformation'". 22 October 2021.
- AFP Fact Check. "US cardiologist falsely promotes Covid-19 vaccine recall". AFP Fact Check. 26 July 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
- Carballo-Carbajal I (6 October 2022). "Article by cardiologist Aseem Malhotra made unsupported claims about the benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccination". Health Feedback.
- Hume T (20 May 2022). "The Davos of COVID Conspiracy Theorists Is Happening in a UK Town Right Now". Vice.
- Merlan A (26 October 2021). "Anti-Vaxxers Are Making a Play for the Hearts, Minds, and Wombs of Young Women". Vice.
- Kerr L, Cadegiani FA, Baldi F, Lobo RB, Assagra WL, et al. (March 2022). "Correction: Ivermectin Prophylaxis Used for COVID-19: A Citywide, Prospective, Observational Study of 223,128 Subjects Using Propensity Score Matching". Cureus (Erratum). 14 (3): c61. doi:10.7759/cureus.c61. PMC 8947948. PMID 35371877.
- Merlan A (22 February 2022a). "Mysterious Medical Organizations Are Calling for an End to COVID Vaccines". Vice.
- Merlan A (17 June 2022b). "Anti-Vaxxers Pivot to 'Treating' Long COVID". Vice.
- Popp M, Reis S, Schießer S, Hausinger RI, Stegemann M, et al. (June 2022). "Ivermectin for preventing and treating COVID-19". Cochrane Database Syst Rev (Systematic review). 2022 (6): CD015017. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD015017.pub3. PMC 9215332. PMID 35726131.