‘I was treated like a traitor’: An interview with WHO whistleblower Francesco Zambon

Francesco Zambon is calling the World Health Organisation (WHO) to account. Zambon, who was based at the WHO’s Venice bureau, claims that the WHO suppressed critical information about the pandemic to serve the political interests of member countries. There are conflicts of interest at the highest levels of the institution, he says. As a result, according to Zambon, the world lost valuable time in mounting effective defences against the pandemic.

Back in May 2020, Zambon and his team wrote a report for the WHO called: ‘An unprecedented challenge: Italy’s first response to Covid-19’. The report, drafted in a time of emergency, was meant to help other nations still untouched by the virus, and it could have saved lives, says Zambon. But soon after it was published, the document came under fire from high cadres within the WHO. It did not survive more than 24 hours online before being taken down. I spoke to Francesco Zambon to find out why:

So why was your report taken down? Hadn’t it been approved?

There is a sentence in the report which states that the Italian pandemic plan dated back to 2006, and was not updated as it should have been.