Francesco Zambon is a physician, PHD, MBA, who worked for 13 years for the World Health Organisation (WHO). He came to global media attention when he became a whistleblower, revealing disturbing conflicts of interest of senior WHO officials. At stake was the non-disclosure of how the COVID-19 pandemic was actually developing in the most affected countries, thus concealing information that could have helped preparedness and response in other countries before the COVID-19 wave. Ostracised by his own organisation, he was forced to resign and has since been subjected to corporate retaliation by WHO and other national and international institutions for having too much “integrity” and for becoming an icon of ethical standards and transparency.