[D66] Column: Plandemic 2 is another COVID-19 conspiracy theory video
Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks
fluks at combidom.com
Fri Aug 21 13:12:50 CEST 2020
Bron: Poynter Institue / Voice of America
Datum: 19 augustus 2020
Auteur: Daniel Funke
URL:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/aug/18/fact-checking-plandemic-2-video-recycles-inaccurat/
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/infodemic/infodemic-plandemic-2-another-covid-19-conspiracy-theory-video
The infodemic: Plandemic 2 is another COVID-19 conspiracy theory
video
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* 'Plandemic: Indoctornation' is a 75-minute pseudo-documentary that
spins an elaborate conspiracy theory about the spread of COVID-19.
* The video is a follow-up to a shorter version that went viral in May.
It repeats several inaccurate and misleading claims about the
coronavirus pandemic.
* Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to
slow the spread of 'Plandemic: Indoctornation.'
The sequel to a video filled with conspiracy theories about the
coronavirus pandemic is so far not the viral hit that the original was.
On Aug. 18, a website that hosts videos removed by YouTube aired
'Plandemic: Indoctornation.' The video is a pseudo-documentary that
spins a conspiracy theory about the spread of COVID-19 over 75 minutes.
Among its targets are Bill Gates, technology companies, Dr. Anthony
Fauci, the pharmaceutical industry, and fact-checkers like PolitiFact
and Snopes.
The video follows up on the shorter 'Plandemic' that went viral in May
(and was removed by tech companies for violating misinformation
policies). It starts where its predecessor left off - a defense of false
and misleading claims made by Judy Mikovits, a discredited former
scientist at the National Cancer Institute - and ends with aphorisms
about humanity and heroism.
Tens of millions of people saw the shorter video before social media
platforms removed it for violating their policies against harmful
COVID-19 misinformation. This version hasn't received as many views,
because the tech platforms were expecting it.
Soon after the live feed started, Facebook blocked its users from
sharing the link in posts and private messages. TikTok appeared to block
searches for the term 'Plandemic.' Twitter added a warning message
saying the link is 'potentially spammy or unsafe.'
Still, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool, Facebook
and Instagram posts with the term 'Plandemic' have received tens of
thousands of combined interactions since Aug. 17. Most of that
engagement appears to have been driven by Brian Rose and his
organization London Real, which is behind the website that hosted
'Plandemic 2' and has a history of airing falsehoods about COVID-19.
Given the potential harm caused by misinformation about the severity of
COVID-19 and how to prevent the virus, we fact-checked some of the
documentary's most misleading claims.
One of the key tenets of PolitiFact is that the burden of proof is on
the speaker. Like its predecessor, 'Plandemic 2' falls woefully short.
David Martin: 'In 2003, the Center for Disease Control saw the
possibility of a gold strike. And that was the coronavirus outbreak that
happened in Asia ... they sought to patent it, and they made sure that
they controlled the proprietary rights to the disease, to the virus, and
to its detection and all of the measurement of it.'
This is misleading. It's similar to misinformation that has spread since
the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2003 - during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in China
- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention applied for a patent
covering the genetic material of and ways to detect the human
coronavirus. Other government agencies, nonprofits and companies also
filed for patents.
The CDC won its application in 2007. However, the agency does not
'control the proprietary rights to' SARS, as Martin claimed in
'Plandemic 2.'
The CDC said during a 2003 media briefing the goal of the patent was to
'make the virus and the products from the virus available in the public
domain.'
'A number of public research organisations ... were compelled to file
patents in respect of the genetic coding of the SARS virus,' wrote
Matthew Rimmer, an intellectual property law professor at the Queensland
University of Technology, in the Melbourne Journal of International Law
in 2004. 'Such measures were promoted as 'defensive patenting' - a means
to ensure that public research and communication were not jeopardised by
commercial parties seeking exclusive private control.'
Entities other than the CDC have tried developing vaccines and
treatments for SARS. We reached out to the CDC for a comment, but we
haven't heard back.
Meryl Nass: 'I feel quite convinced that this was a laboratory designed
organism.'
Research shows that the virus could not have been created in a lab. An
article published March 17 says the genetic makeup of the coronavirus,
documented by researchers from several public health organizations, does
not indicate it was altered.
SARS-CoV-2, the official name of the virus that causes COVID-19, is a
betacoronavirus, like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome. All three viruses have their origins in bats,
according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Specifically, scientists have linked the genetic structure of the novel
coronavirus to the horseshoe bat, which is common in southern and
central China. The virus is 'zoonotic,' meaning it sprSubheadlineead
from animals to humans, according to a report from 25 international
experts, including some from China and the U.S., convened by the World
Health Organization.
Scientists still aren't sure how the novel coronavirus made the jump
from its intermediate host to humans. But there's no evidence that a lab
created or manipulated the virus.
Mikki Willis: 'Anthony Fauci knew early as January of 2017 that we would
see an outbreak before the end of 2020. Even Bill Gates, a man with no
medical training, knew it was coming.'
This is misleading. Willis made this claim in reference to Event 201, a
simulation designed to help plan for a global pandemic by bringing
together business, government, and public health leaders. The event took
place in October 2019 and was organized by the John Hopkins Center for
Health Security World Economic Forum and Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
According to Event 201's website, the event 'simulated a novel zoonotic
coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually
becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a
severe pandemic.' The fictionalized scenario was planned in part because
there have been two worldwide outbreaks of coronaviruses in the last 20
years.
On Jan. 24, 2020, the John Hopkins Center for Health Security released a
statement clarifying that they had not been predicting the current
coronavirus outbreak:
'To be clear, the Center for Health Security and partners did not make a
prediction during our tabletop exercise. For the scenario, we modeled a
fictional coronavirus pandemic, but we explicitly stated that it was not
a prediction.'
Johns Hopkins has hosted other simulations with evocative names in
recent years - including Dark Winter in 2001, Atlantic Storm in 2005,
and Clade X in 2018. The World Economic Forum has said such simulations
are important for preparing for the average of 200 epidemics that take
place annually.
What about 2017, the year that Willis mentioned in his claim?
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, said during a 2017 event at Georgetown University that there
would be 'a surprise outbreak' facing the Trump administration. But that
doesn't mean he predicted the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci talked about a
wide range of diseases that emerged or intensified during his tenure at
the institute, including HIV/AIDS and West Nile virus.
Willis: 'A 2018 scientific study released in the International Journal
of Environmental Research and Public Health concluded that over 490,000
children in India developed paralysis as a result of the Gates-supported
oral polio vaccine that was administered between the years of 2000 and
2017.'
We rated a similar claim False, as have several other fact-checkers.
The study that Willis cited is real, and it's hosted by the U.S.
National Library of Medicine. It found a correlation between non-polio
acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) and polio vaccinations given between 2000
and 2017.
However, the study has received criticism for its methodology, namely
for including symptoms shown by children ages five to 15 when the oral
polio vaccine campaign focused on children under the age of five. And
polio is just one reason children could be paralyzed - Guillain-Barre
Syndrome is also a leading cause.
In a reply to some of that criticism, the authors of the 2018 paper
wrote that 'non-polio AFP, by its very definition, excludes polio
vaccine-induced paralysis.'
The Gates Foundation has long funded groups in India and elsewhere that
seek to expand access to polio immunization. In March 2014, the World
Health Organization declared that its Southeast Asia region was
polio-free, in part because of the kinds of mass vaccination campaigns
supported by the Gates Foundation. However, the virus remains a threat
in South Asian countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the WHO, it is possible to contract polio from vaccines -
but it's extremely rare. The agency estimates that 1 in 2.7 million oral
doses results in vaccine-associated paralytic polio.
Since the eradication of polio in India, there have been some scares of
tainted vaccines. But data from the WHO show that, between 2000 and
2017, there were 17 cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus.
Willis: 'In partnership with MIT, Bill Gates has developed a new
technology that allows vaccines to be injected under your skin, along
with your medical records.'
We rated a similar claim Mostly False.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are seeking to
address vaccine tracking challenges in developing countries by creating
an invisible ink that could be injected into children along with
vaccines. The idea behind the research is that the dye would provide a
quick, affordable way of helping health providers keep track of a
child's vaccinations.
The Gates Foundation has contributed funds for this research, and Gates
has said he supports the idea of a national tracking system to monitor
the virus that causes COVID-19. But Willis' claim lacks two pieces of
context.
First, the MIT study began in July 2016 - more than three years before
the first novel coronavirus cases emerged. It was not inspired by the
current outbreak. Second, there is no evidence that it has anything to
do with monitoring Americans specifically.
We reached out to Willis and Rose, who founded the platform that hosted
'Plandemic 2,' but we haven't heard back.
Our Sources
Agence France-Presse, 'Gates Foundation targeted with misleading claims
about India polio vaccine campaign,' July 22, 2020
https://factcheck.afp.com/gates-foundation-targeted-misleading-claims-about-india-polio-vaccine-campaign
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC SARS Response Timeline
https://www.cdc.gov/about/history/sars/timeline.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 'CDC Update on Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),' May 6, 2003
https://www.cdc.gov/media/transcripts/t030506.htm
Chicago Tribune, 'Covering the stunning fall of Judy Mikovits,
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https://clinicaltrials.gov/
CrowdTangle, accessed Aug. 18, 2020
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,
'Correlation between Non-Polio Acute Flaccid Paralysis Rates with Pulse
Polio Frequency in India,' August 2018
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