The Rockefeller Foundation did support eugenics research in the early 1900s. However, it played no part in founding the World Health Organization.
On May 2, 2024, the X (formerly Twitter) account @thehealthb0t posted a video of a woman delivering a lecture about vaccines. The video was accompanied with a caption claiming that the Rockefeller family, whom the woman described as being "into eugenics," founded the World Health Organization, an intergovernmental agency operated by the United Nations.
(X user @thehealthb0t)
The Rockefeller family did not found the World Health Organization, so this claim is "False."
In the past, the family did support eugenicist causes, including some directly tied to Nazi Germany. The Rockefeller Foundation published a statement in 2021, in collaboration with the Anti-Eugenics Project, announcing it was investigating its history with eugenics.
Where Is This Video From? Who Is the Lecturer?
Our investigation began with attempting to figure out where this video was from and who was giving the lecture. The clip posted on X contained a TikTok watermark for the user @theunlearn. On that page, we found a series of videos pushing scientifically invalid anti-vaccination conspiracies, including information on how to "detoxify" your body from vaccinations and mentions of the microchip conspiracy theory.
We also found the Rockefeller video, posted in parts. A graphic in the video identified the lecturer as a woman named Sydney White and described her as an investigative journalist. Comments asking where users could find more information from her led us to White's YouTube channel, titled "Studies in Propaganda."
The description of that YouTube channel read:
An alternative analysis of all forms of propaganda; media, religion, healthcare, war and most importantly - those who print the money, print the news.
Lecture series at the free University of Toronto senior alumnus Sydney White presents 'Studies in Propaganda'
On the YouTube channel, we did not find the original video — comments on TikTok suggested it had been removed at some point. However, we found a litany of other videos, in all of which White attempted to prove common conspiracy theories. We found an original version of the vaccines lecture uploaded on Rumble, a video platform popular among alt-right figures.
We contacted the University of Toronto to ask whether White had ever taught at the school. A university spokesperson told us she had not. We found that White actually taught gave "Studies in Propaganda" lectures at the "Free University of Toronto," a name that Snopes found no reliable information about online.
A Bookstore in Toronto
Another link from White's YouTube page led to a now-closed bookstore in Toronto called "Conspiracy Culture," which still has an active website. The website's about page describes the bookstore as follows:
Conspiracy Culture was a small, independently owned and operated bookstore that opened on August 26th, 2006 due to the limited availability of alternative media found in corporate-controlled mainstream bookstores. The physical storefront closed on December 31st 2017.
ConspiracyCulture.com is an independently owned source for information on conspiratorial, political and spiritual subject matter. The site is updated regularly with unbiased links to suppressed and controversial news & info.
The bookstore also hosted events and talks, including nine by White. We also found that the bookstore hosted one event featuring Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced doctor known as the founder of the modern anti-vaccination movement, and three by InfoWars founder Alex Jones.
All of that is to say that people who spoke at the Conspiracy Culture bookstore, including White, were not reliable sources of information. Which turns us to what White claims in the video: that the Rockefellers were "into eugenics" and "own the WHO."
The Rockefellers
John D. Rockefeller made his money through Standard Oil in the late 1800s. In 1913, he started a charitable organization called The Rockefeller Foundation, and much of its early work was based around improving health care.
Simultaneously, the American eugenics movement was at its peak. Rockefeller, Carnegie and Henry Ford all were involved and donated money to eugenics research. The Rockefeller Foundation donated money to construct the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics — where many Nazi scientists studied and learned.
By the end of World War II, as Nazi Germany's crimes against humanity were publicized, eugenics quickly fell out of favor. The funding did too. But it is clear that The Rockefeller Foundation, among other famous charitable organizations of the time, had connections to the eugenics movement.
The World Health Organization
The WHO also ties its founding back to World War II. In 1945, in San Francisco, California, delegates from 50 nations created and signed what is now known as the United Nations charter. At that conference, the idea of creating the World Health Organization was already being discussed.
The constitution was drafted in 1946 and the WHO was born in 1948. The Rockefeller Foundation played no part — it makes no mention of the WHO in its history and vice versa. The World Health Organization is run by and was created by delegates of the United Nations.