Plandemic is a 22-minute conspiracy theory video[1] released in May 2020, promoting misinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic. It is claimed to be the trailer for an upcoming full-length film in Summer 2020.[2] The video stars discredited former medical researcher turned anti-vaccination activist Judy Mikovits[3] and was directed by Mikki Willis.
The video spread rapidly on social media[4] before being removed from Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo due to concerns over its misleading content and promotion of false information.[1] Twitter flagged it as "unsafe" and blocked the hashtags #PlagueOfCorruption and #Plandemicmovie from trends and searches.[5]
Media outlets, scientists, and public health experts have branded the film as misinformation and "a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories".[6][7][8]
Contents
The video presents claims from a conspiracist perspective that vaccines are "a money-making enterprise that causes medical harm".[4] It takes the form of an interview between Willis and Mikovits in which Mikovits makes numerous unsupported or false claims around coronavirus, and her own controversial history.[9] Fact-checker Politifact highlighted eight false or misleading claims including:[9]
- That Mikovits was held in jail without charge. Mikovits was briefly held on remand after an accusation of theft from her former employer, the Whittemore Peterson Institute, but charges were dropped. There is no evidence to support her claim that notebooks removed from the Institute were "planted" or that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and its director Anthony Fauci bribed investigators. A NIAID spokesman stated: "The National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are focused on critical research aimed at ending the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing further deaths," a spokesperson said in a statement. "We are not engaging in tactics by some seeking to derail our efforts."
- That the virus was manipulated. An article in Nature analyses the likely origins and finds that "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus".[10]
- That the virus occurred from SARS 1 within a decade and that this is inconsistent with natural causes. This is incorrect: SARS-CoV-2 is similar but unrelated to SARS-CoV (SARS-1), with only 79% genetic similarity.[11]
- That hospitals receive "$13,000 from Medicare if you call it COVID-19" when a patient dies. This claim, which had previously been promoted by The American Spectator and WorldNetDaily,[12] was rated "half true" by Politifact[13] and Snopes:[14] payments are made but the amount is open to dispute and there is no evidence that this influences diagnosis and in fact the evidence suggests that COVID-19 is, if anything, under-diagnosed.[15]
- That hydroxychloroquine is ‘effective against these families of viruses’. This claim originates with work by Didier Raoult, which has subsequently received a "statement of concern" from the editors of the journal in which it was published.[16][17] An NIH study failed to show any benefit and an increased risk of cardiac death from taking hydroxychloroquine.[18]
- That flu vaccines increase the chance of contracting COVID-19 by 36%. As an anti-vaccine activist, this claim was unsurprising from Mikovits, but was rated untrue by FactCheck.org,[19] Health Feedback,[20] and others. The claim originates in a disputed paper that predates the COVID-19 pandemic and the claim that the flu vaccine increases the chance of contracting COVID-19 by 36% does not appear in the original paper at all, but was added by the website disabledveterans.org.[20]
- That "if you’ve ever had a flu vaccine, you were injected with coronaviruses". This has also been debunked,[21][22] the flu shot contains no coronaviruses.[23]
- That "wearing the mask literally activates your own virus. You’re getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expressions." This claim is incoherent and unsupported by evidence. Masks prevent airborne transmission of the virus especially during the asymptomatic period (up to 14 days) when carriers may not even be aware they have the disease.[24]
Mikovits also alludes to a number of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories centring on Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, notably the idea that Gates is implicated in creating the disease in order to profit from an eventual vaccine,[4] and makes false and unsupported claims that beaches should remain open as "healing microbes in the saltwater" and "sequences" in the sand can "protect against the coronavirus".[4]
Willis' previous credits include numerous conspiracy theorist videos[9] as well as cinematography on Neurons to Nirvana, a film making therapeutic claims about psychedelic drugs.
Reception
Immediately following its release online, "dozens" of physicians and scientists responded in an effort to debunk the documentary's claims. Claire Spellberg suggests Dr. Zubin Damania's three-minute video, A Doctor Reacts to Plandemic, has been the most viewed: "Damania shuts down the 'garbage conspiracy nonsense' and highlights one of Dr. Mikovits' discredited scientific studies."[2]