Fact Check: Does leaked WHO document reveal hidden, scripted answers to vaccine deaths?
Conservative media personality Stew Peters made a shocking claim on his personal Twitter account. Governments throughout the world were directed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond in lockstep to events that could dampen public faith in vaccines, he alleged, explaining, “4Chan leaked the WHO Covid manual, and we have it ALL! It was ALL pre-scripted, and they can’t hide anymore." [Emphases added].
Actual scripts
As it turns out, the main part of the 4Chan claim is correct. The WHO created a document entitled, Vaccine crisis communication manual: step-by-step guidance for national immunization programmes. One Twitter user posted a screenshot of the document's instructions for dealing with a sudden infant death after a vaccination and commented,
From #WHO manual to doctors: if a child dies within 24 hours of vaccination, your first responsibility is to restore trust in the vaccine - not find the truth. Who is organized crime.
The manual (p.14) provides the wording to use when an infant dies suddenly, within 24 hours of a vaccination, even providing a space to insert the name of the disease the vaccine was expected to prevent.
- Our deepest sympathy goes to those affected.
- Vaccination saves lives and prevents suffering. The risk of severe side effects is extremely small. Some mild and more frequent side effects that may occur include a light rash and fever. The benefits of vaccination by far outweigh the minimal risk of a severe adverse event following immunization.
- For example: 1 in 1 000 000 individuals vaccinated may suffer from a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis).
- The vaccine is prequalified, which means it has been approved by WHO. Before prequalification it was rigorously tested through clinical and field procedures. After prequalification, WHO regularly inspects the production facilities to ensure compliance with good manufacturing practice.
- Scientific evidence shows that combined vaccines save time and money through fewer clinic visits, reduce discomfort for the child through fewer injections and increase the probability that the child will receive the complete set of vaccinations according to the national schedule.
- Despite high immunization coverage for [insert name of vaccine-preventable disease], some children are still missing out on vaccination and thus remain at risk.
- Our country has taken all necessary steps to avoid a future outbreak of [insert name of vaccine-preventable disease] by initiating a [insert name of vaccine-preventable disease] vaccination catch-up campaign.
Every scenario
in addition to sudden infant deaths the scripts cover all kinds of anticipated events that could cause parents to think twice before vaccinating their child, including the introduction of a new vaccine, mass vaccination campaigns, the suspension of a vaccine, a new critical scientific study of a vaccine's side effects, vaccine injury stories circulating on social media and critical media reports (p. 7).
It's not that. What else happened to the baby?
The WHO explains that this guidance is provided when, "An infant has died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) within 24 hours after having been immunized [and p]reliminary evidence indicates no causal link between the death and the vaccine.” Despite the extremely close proximity in time between a vaccination and an infant death, the WHO is calling for doctors to deny any connection unless a causal relationship is proven, essentially asking them to tell parents that anything but the vaccine caused their child's demise.
This validates the impression of many parents that when they brought their children to the emergency room in the hours or days after a vaccination, the doctors appeared to be trained to be very interested in any recent event other than vaccination, from the food the child ate to exposure to sick people to a bump or fall to whether they slept on their stomach.
The WHO manual never explains what would constitute a causal relationship between a vaccination and a sudden infant death.
‘Insanity’
One Reddit user commented on the “insanity” of a propaganda effort to convince parents to continue vaccinating their children after they hear about the sudden death of other children
Do you realize the insanity of this? There are people whose jobs are dedicated towards telling the public that the vaccines are still safe even if someone dies after they take it. There is no justification for why they would ever need handbooks like this if the vaccines were "100% Safe and Effective" as claimed.
Embellishing
What is not true, though, is what Mr. Peters added to the 4Chan story — that the WHO document was “hidden” until "leaked".
Peters did not explain why he believed the document was hidden. An internet search for a “WHO vaccine crisis communication manual” immediately provides an official WHO website with a creation date of February 21, 2022.
That same February 2022 date is listed on the WHO's site as the document's publication date.
A search on the Wayback Machine also shows that the document was neither hidden nor leaked. The archive captured the document on August 17, 2022.
All this is significant because rather than spread the important information that is summarized in the 4Chan post and readily available in full detail on the WHO's official website, the Peters post spreads misinformation which can then be used to neutralize the effect of the information, as anyone can easily do a little research and respond, “What a conspiracy theory! Leaked documents? There's no conspiracy, the information has been on the WHO site all along.”
Simply describing the information in a factual manner, as others have, explaining that the document was found online and linking to the WHO website, would, on the other hand, forestall the possibility of being accused of making unfounded claims. Below is one such example:
Verdict
Our fact checkers therefore determine that Peters' claim about a leaked WHO document revealing hidden, scripted answers to vaccine deaths is: FALSE.
At the same time, we found the underlying claims of the WHO providing 'step-by-step guidance' for governments around the world to use when responding to vaccine deaths, suspended vaccines and critical research is: TRUE.
Stew Peters
See our previous article on Stew Peters' apparent failure to perform due diligence before publicizing claims.
