FOCUS: “Inside Corona”, a deep dive into the influence networks of NGOs

How does the system uncovered by German journalist T. Röper in his in-depth investigation work ^[2]? The term NGO here covers all forms of non-governmental and non-commercial organisations, and therefore also foundations, think tanks and lobbies. Broadly speaking, there are two types of NGO: those that have substantial financial capital and buy influence through “philanthropy”, and those that do not have such funds but have influence thanks to their address books. These NGOs are often linked to one another through experts funded and hired by some and active within others, thus creating a network of multiple ties that give rise to conflicts of interest influencing the experts.

Communicating vessels

Most of these NGOs have the status ofcharities, which on the one hand gives them an aura of disinterestedness and innocence, but on the other allows their founders to benefit from tax exemptions. Thus, when their funders such as Bill Gates, George Soros or the Rockefeller family are presented as “altruistic philanthropists” – another, perhaps more accurate, term used by the author for them isoligarchs – one must bear in mind that the money they “give” not only escapes taxation, but that they invest it in projects and companies in which they are shareholders and receive dividends in return, which are then transferred back to the tax-exempt foundations.

Their transparency regarding the projects funded changes nothing either, because it is only apparent. NGOs present themselves as devoted to great causes and regularly resort to euphemistic, consensual but vague language, so that the projects funded appear acceptable and legitimate in the eyes of the general public and to cover themselves.

The role of experts

Most of these projects operate in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs), in which the initial sum invested by the philanthropists and NGOs receives heavy media coverage, whereas it represents only a fraction of the public money invested subsequently. And since these PPPs are often created on the initiative of the NGOs, the latter control them through their experts whom they manage to place in key positions. To name just two: Peter Piot and Margaret Hamburg.

Piot is the husband of Heidi Larson and former director (until July 2021) of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (financially supported to the tune of several hundred million dollars by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF) which hosts the Vaccine Confidence Project, a project supported by the BMGF and led by H. Larson. P. Piot has been a Senior Fellow of the BMGF since 2009. He was a member of the board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI, also supported to the tune of several hundred million dollars by the BMGF) until the end of April 2022. He was special adviser on covid to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

As for Margaret A. “Peggy” Hamburg, she is vice-president and researcher at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Founded by billionaire Ted Turner, this NGO is interested, among other things, in biological weapons and biosecurity, and is one of the NGOs that organised pandemic exercises in the years before covid. M. Hamburg was among the American officials taking part in the Milken Institute’s “Universal flu vaccine” event, during which they demanded “blowing up the system” with regard to mRNA vaccine regulations. She was Commissioner of the US Foods & Drugs Administration (FDA), Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Health and deputy director of the National Institute of Health (NIH, Dr Fauci’s agency). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and, above all, she sits on the boards of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI, funded by the BMGF to the tune of around $5 bn) and of CEPI. She is a member of the BMGF’s Global Health Scientific Advisory Committee.

The spider’s web business model

When reading T. Röper’s book, it is important to understand that the chapter on NGOs is structured like a “spider’s web”, in which one moves from the edge to the centre, where the spider that wove it sits. Who is part of this spider’s web? As the list is long and the details arduous, it is best to make do here with the following quotation:

“As the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has appeared in every chapter of this book, it is already obvious that Bill Gates sits like the spider at the centre of the pandemic. […] Moreover, it is quite possible that Rockefeller is also at the centre of the network, but as we have seen, the Rockefeller Foundation is not as transparent with its funds and directs a great deal via dark money. But Rockefeller also appears – as we have seen – as a supporter almost everywhere in the pandemic preparations.” (p.237)

It would, however, be illusory to believe that the book could serve as an exhaustive compendium of all the NGOs involved in the covid pandemic – far from it. The author makes no such claim. It would be wiser to see it as a first clue, a basis or a starting point for any investigation into the networks responsible for the crisis-management regimes imposed for more than two years. This applies above all to any investigation seeking to retrace the steps of those responsible at national and local levels, because each geographical entity has its own order-executors, who differ from those responsible at international level.

By Colin Meier, citizen journalist and Germany correspondent for BAM!

[1] Röper, T. (2022): Inside Corona. Die Pandemie, das Netzwerk & die Hintermänner. Die wahren Ziele hinter Covid-19. J.K. Fischer verlag. Gelnhausen Hailer.

[2] See BAM!’s review of his book

Photo source:
CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0, montage based on a photo by Colin Meier and a photo by Phil, on flickr, CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0