The World Economic Forum, ‘The Lancet’, and COVID-19 Knowledge Gatekeeping

The study investigated the links that the World Economic Forum has established with organizations and persons linked to The Lancet article titled Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19. Guided by the Gatekeeping Theory, appended by the Political Economy of Knowledge Theory, the study implemented an integrative literature review (textual synthesis). Relevant online pieces of literature were sampled through snowballing technique using the Google search engine platform to elucidate on the funding and ownership of the Lancet, and the 27 authors of the said article and their affiliations with higher learning institutions vis-à-vis their connections with the World Economic Forum to highlight their implications to gatekeeping and COVID-19 knowledge production in journal publications, particularly that of The Lancet. Results revealed that the WEF has penetrated all knowledge institutions that benefit from the natural COVID-19 virus origins hypothesis and the silencing of contrarian hypotheses, including the lab leak narrative. A model of the WEF knowledge production complex against the lab leak hypothesis was presented to visually represent the influence of the WEF on scientific journal gatekeeping in the context of The Lancet.