We came across this image being circulated on Telegram:

In what looks to be a photo taken of a crumpled, yellowing newspaper of sorts, we see what appears to be a quote from a speech by Henry Kissinger to the WHO Council on Eugenics that allegedly happened on 25 February 2009. Henry Kissinger was formerly a Secretary of State of the United States and also held the position of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Kissinger had also received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam.

The quote appears to be referring to the general population as “the herd”, and talks about how when “the herd” accepts mandatory vaccinations, they will “accept anything – forcible blood or organ donation – ‘for the greater good'”.

Even more horrifyingly, the quote also mentions that children will be able to be “genetically modified and sterilised”, again, “for the greater good”. The quote also mentions that vaccine makers would “stand to make billions”, and that “many of you in this room are investors (in vaccines)”.

From what was said and how the speech seems to have been addressed to a select group of individuals (purportedly, investors of vaccines and members of the purported WHO Council on Eugenics), it seems to feed into the often-mentioned ‘New World Order’ conspiracy theory by anti-vaccination groups, where a ‘Great Reset’ led by a “global elite” is happening via the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent vaccine roll-out.

No such event, no such WHO council

In an email to fact-checking organisation PolitiFact, Christian Lindmeier, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that there are “no records in WHO’s archives of the speech”, and that a WHO Council on Eugenics does not even exist.

Snopes also noted that the controversial topic of eugenics only appears to be discussed in WHO documents, in a “historical context emphasising that the practice served as a basis for the genocidal policies of Nazi Germany”.

When Reuters did a search on Kissinger’s website where his past speeches are archived, only two were listed for the year 2009 – one at the Trilateral Commission Tokyo Plenary Meeting on April 26 2009, and another at the 35th Anniversary of the International Energy Agency in Paris, France on 14 October 2009.

AAP FactCheck found that a speech closest to the stated date in the viral image was delivered at the 45th Munich Security Conference on 6 February 6 2009. However, it was about nuclear weapons and there was no talk about vaccinations, blood donations, or genetic modification.

AAP FactCheck also noted that the only document authored by or quoting Kissinger that could be sourced about population control was a National Security Study Memorandum dated 10 December 1974 and declassified by the White House in 1989. Once again, the quote could not be found in the speech, and there was no reference to vaccinations or “the herd” either.

Therefore, it is false that Henry Kissinger made a speech about “the herd”, mandatory vaccination, and genetically modifying children in 2009.