According to an alarming recent report, COVID-vaccine manufacturer Moderna has been allegedly spying on vocal critics of vaccines through their social media profiles. To keep an eye on vaccine skeptics, Moderna has hired various services including those of former FBI and Secret Service employees.
The bombshell report, titled “Moderna is Spying on You,” was originally published by investigative journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulson on UnHerd (November 20) and later on Fang’s personal news site on Monday (November 27).
In their report, Fang and Poulson reveal that Moderna has been operating an unofficial “disinformation department” in collaboration with former law enforcement officials, specifically the FBI, and public health officials. What they essentially do is monitor people with significant following on their social media and document their comments or views that are critical or opposing to vaccines. Celebrities like World’s top tennis player Novak Djokovic and Twitter/X owner Elon Musk are deemed “high risk” by Moderna’s disinformation department.
The story also informs that Moderna is ratcheting up its surveillance operation as more people keep moving on and dropping the COVID-19 booster shots from their bucket lists. The pharma company is actively watching politicians and public servants who opt for medical freedom and refuse to enforce vaccine mandates in their districts or states. The report says:
In particular, the company is closely tracking elected officials and recently passed laws in Arkansas and Texas which restricted vaccine mandates.
As part of it online monitoring operation, Moderna also retains the service of a tech firm called Talkwalker, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor vaccine-related posts across millions of websites around the world. The program flags comments that show vaccine hesitancy and even mention of competing pharma companies, like Pfizer.
Sharing the report on Twitter/X, Fang added that he has a follow-up for the story coming out later in the week, which will show much more.
Fang’s story was largely ignored by mainstream media but a handful of sources did pick it up and talk about it, The Hill TV being one of them. Fang was invited on their show to talk about his report.
The New York Post took up the story on November 27 and named Nikki Rutman as the former FBI analyst who is part of Moderna’s “global intelligence division”:
The “disinformation” department is run out of Moderna’s global intelligence division headed by Nikki Rutman, a former FBI analyst who spent 20 years with the bureau, according to Fang and Poulson. Many conservative Twitter/X accounts with a significant following shared the story on the platform to beware their followers.
The partnership between Moderna and Pfizer with public health agencies in the United States has come under criticism over conflict of interest. Earlier this year, Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel told Senator Rand Paul in a public hearing that the company paid $400 million in royalties to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2022. When Senator Paul asked whether it comes to him as a conflict of interest, Bancel declined to comment.