Dr. Hanna Nohynek, a World Health Organization (WHO) official, has told a court that her recommendation to Finland’s government during the pandemic was that the so-called “vaccine passport” was not necessary.
Nohynek, who is also the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s chief physician, testified that as the controversial schemes were being announced, her stance was that Covid vaccines were not effective in stopping the transmission of the virus, and therefore “vaccine passports,” designed to prove somebody’s vaccination status and create a checkpoint society, were superfluous.
Worse still, they provided people with “a false sense of security,” is how the doctor put it, referring to her advice dating back to the end of 2021. As for the awareness that the vaccines did not stop Covid transmission, reports quoting Nohynek’s testimony say the Institute knew this in the summer of that year, and possibly earlier.
But despite Nohynek’s stance and her role at WHO – where she chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), and is also a member of the Vaccines Together and the International Vaccine Institute boards – the government ignored her.
At about the same time, the UN health agency was going ahead with plans to set up its Global Digital Health Certification Network, enabling the proliferation of digital vaccine passports, while the EU came out with its Digital COVID Certificate Regulation.
The facts concerning the advice given to the Finnish government came out during court proceedings launched by Mika Vauhkala, who sued for being barred from entering an establishment in 2021, even though he was healthy, but did not have the “vaccine passport.”
Vauhkala sued the government, alleging that the measures were unconstitutional since the country’s highest legal act prohibits discrimination against citizens – including based on health conditions.
The WHO, other organizations, and national governments like to talk about preparing for the “next pandemic”; however, revelations like this can hardly increase the level of trust people will have if another pandemic happens, particularly considering how ill-thought-out some of the most restrictive and damaging Covid measures have been.
After all, Nohynek could hardly be dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist” – and yet, her recommendations were dismissed.
