Facebook revealed on Wednesday that Chinese state employees were linked to a “deceptive” COVID-19 disinformation campaign that claimed the United States was pressuring the World Health Organization to blame the pandemic on China.

In a report entitled “THE SWISS BIOLOGIST THAT NEVER WAS: A Chinese influence operation focused on COVID-19,” Facebook wrote that someone based in China pretended to be a Swiss biologist named “Dr. Wilson Edwards,” who claimed that the United States was “putting pressure on World Health Organization scientists studying the origins of COVID-19 in an attempt to blame the virus on China.”

Facebook said hundreds of social media accounts picked up the story within 48 hours and Chinese Communist Party state-run media, including the Global Times and People’s Daily, ran headlines highlighting the alleged US “intimidation.”