Plandemic is a trilogy of conspiracy theory films produced by Mikki Willis promoting misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. They feature Judy Mikovits, a discredited American researcher and prominent anti-vaccine activist. The first video, Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19, was released on May 4, 2020, under Willis' production company Elevate Films. The second film, Plandemic Indoctornation, which includes more interviewees, was released on August 18 by Brian Rose's distributor of conspiracy theory related films, London Real. Later on June 3, 2023, Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening was released on The Highwire, a website devoted to conspiracy theories run by anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree.

Upon its release, the first video went viral, becoming one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation, its popularity most attributed to online word-of-mouth. It was quickly removed by multiple online platforms, but this failed to stop its proliferation. The video also contributed to the increasing rebellion against health protocols. Due to social media companies' preparedness for its release, Plandemic: Indoctornation received less attention.

Scientists and health professionals have criticized all the installments of the trilogy for their misleading claims, while Willis' filmmaking style employing various modes of persuasion has been cited as lending to a conspiratorial and brainwashing character of the film. Responding to the outcry directed at the first video, Willis expressed doubt about Mikovits' claims but continued to defend her, with Indoctrination being self-described as a "response video" to debunkers. The Great Awakening was also subject to debunking by fact-checkers.

Background

Main articles: COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 misinformation, and List of unproven methods against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic was caused by the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, becoming a pandemic in 2020.[1] Billions of people have contracted the disease and millions eventually died from it.[2] As a result of the pandemic declaration, travel restrictions,[3] social distancing measures,[4] and many other precautions were enacted to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19[5] while vaccines were quickly developed and underwent phased distribution in most countries.[6] Meanwhile, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the pandemic emerged, concerning the pandemic's scale, the virus' origin, diagnosis, and treatment. Among the popular conspiracy theory is that the virus is a bioweapon to control the population.[7] Some people have claimed to have magical or faith-based cures for the disease.[8]

Judy Anne Mikovits is a former American research scientist who is known for her discredited medical claims, such as the claim murine endogenous retroviruses are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome.[9] Even prior to the pandemic, Mikovits was engaged in anti-vaccination activism and the promotion of conspiracy theories,[10] and was accused of scientific misconduct.[11] Prior to the release of Plandemic, Mikovits had expressed support for various COVID-19 conspiracy theories, claiming, for example, that the COVID-19 pandemic is a predictable flu season.[12]

Mikki Willis[a] is a former model and actor[14] who had been making several New Age documentary films and conspiracy videos.[15]: 4  At age 25, he founded the New York/Los Angeles Theater of the Arts, where he made several experimental plays, before making his feature debut film, Shoe Shine Boys (1996). He owns a production company, Elevate Films, which operates under the 501(c)(3) non-profit Elevate Foundation, founded in 2006. At one point, it also operated a namesake film festival.[13][16][17] He was also co-director, co-cinematographer, and co-editor of the documentary Neurons to Nirvana (2013), which makes therapeutic claims on psychedelics. Residing in Ojai, California, Willis has a wife and business partner, Nadia Salamanca, as well as two sons. He has a family YouTube channel, Elevate Family, where one of his videos encouraging young boys to be unashamed of their cross-gender interests went viral. In 2023, it was reported they were planning to launch an alternative learning center.[15]: 3 [18][19]

Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19

Summary

The word Plandemic in all capital, with the letter I replaced with a syringe. The word Plan has a thin body, while the word Demic is bolder.
The logo used for the first video

The first installment of the trilogy, a 26-minute video titled Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19,[19] promotes the conspiracist claim that vaccines are "a money-making enterprise that causes medical harm",[20] exploring themes of the loss of free speech and free choice, also promoting parental autonomy against the pharmaceutical industry.[15]: 14  It takes the form of an interview between Willis and Mikovits, who makes unsupported and false statements about SARS-CoV2, the disease it causes, and her own controversial history.[19]

Fact-checking responses

Fact-checking website PolitiFact highlighted eight false or misleading statements made in the video:[19]

A young adolescent carrying a yellow sign saying, "We are woke to your plandemic. We do not consent to a Gates Vaccine."
A child protesting COVID-19 vaccines with the word plandemic at Franklin County, Ohio

The journal Science also repeats some of the statements made by PolitiFact and fact-checked some of Mikovits' and Willis' other statements:[36]

Mikovits also alludes to several conspiracy theories that state Bill Gates is implicated in causing the pandemic to profit from an eventual vaccine,[20] and makes false and unsupported statements such as the claim that beaches should remain open because of "healing microbes in the saltwater" and "sequences" in the sand that can "protect against the coronavirus".[37] The video states the numbers of COVID-19 deaths are purposely being misreported to control people.[38] External videos, such as one in which a chiropractor says tonic water can treat or prevent COVID-19 and one of a press conference among doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi in Bakersfield, California, says the COVID-19 pandemic is over-hyped. These external videos were also disputed beforehand.[39]

Production

The word Elevate in all caps, with the word V resembling a diamond.
Logo of Elevate Films, the production company for the first video

According to Willis, producing Plandemic was a struggle. At that time, he was aware getting involved in controversial topics would risk his reputation and would likely embroil him in heated discussions. "And of course there’s been tons of it. I’ve just been navigating all of that", he told the Los Angeles Times. Willis' concern arose from his perception of the pharmaceutical industry's corruption, a concern that began with the deaths of his mother from cancer and of his brother from AIDS during his 20s.[13]

Willis met Mikovits for the first time in 2019, via mutual friends. Willis told the Ojai Valley News: "Because of [Mikovits'] direct connection with [those] involved with the pandemic ... I reached out to her for advice. We met, had a meeting, and what she revealed to me I knew the world needed to know." Principal photography took a day and editing took two weeks. Willis said he stopped editing a "socially conscious" documentary film he produced in 2019, arguing Plandemic was urgent. He was unsure whether to make a continuation.[40][18] After hiring a cinematographer and researcher to join the project, Willis calculated it had a budget at less than US$2,000.[13]

Willis, a low-budget filmmaker who was 52 years old at the time of Plandemic's release, teamed up with Salamanca to market the video;[13] among their efforts were creating an Instagram account.[41] They intentionally chose conspiratorial branding to gain attention. The project's title, a portmenteau of plan and pandemic, was the most popular choice in a Facebook poll conducted by Willis; runners-up were The Invisible Enemy and The Oath.[13]

Release

Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 was released on May 4, 2020.[42] It was promoted by American far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on InfoWars,[43] and spread virally on social media, garnering millions of views,[20] making it one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation. "Judy Mikovits" became a trending search on Google for two days.[44] Two weeks prior to release, 30,368 tweets used the term "plandemic", most of which were merely retweets. After the video's release, the word "plandemic" was used 155% more on Twitter.[45] According to CrowdTangle, QAnon Facebook groups endorsed the video. A Facebook spokesman recalled its hired fact-checkers wasting a huge amount of time to verify the video's claims, partly due to its duration and the number of claims.[46] Before being removed, one of the videos featuring the work attracted one million views.[47] Despite its removal, viewings of the video on the original site continued.[48]

A YouTube spokesperson said the platform would remove videos supporting the claims of Plandemic without sufficient evidence, saying "[s]uggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm". Vimeo's Trust & Safety team removed the video for violating its policies on misinformation; Twitter said hashtags like #PlagueofCorruption[b] and #PlandemicMovie had been blacklisted and that not all of Mikovits' attempts to spread propaganda on the platform violated its policies. By the time the video was removed from Facebook, it had been watched 1.8 million times, had attracted 17,000 comments, and had been shared nearly 150,000 times.[49] On TikTok, the video continued to find popularity via excerpted clips, some of which were removed from the platform.[50] Google Drive and the Internet Archive were also used to spread the video; the former removed the files after being notified by The Washington Post.[41]

According to Zarine Kharazian, assistant editor of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, as the film was removed from mainstream social media platforms, a "censorship backfire" that was characterized as a form of Streisand effect occurred; links to copies were promoted on alt-tech platforms—some of which were designed to host controversial content—were shared, with people's interest attracted by the video's perceived taboo nature.[51] On Facebook, posts flagged as misinformation are more likely to be spread than those ignored. Shahin Nazar and Toine Pieters of the journal Frontiers in Public Health called the marketing campaign of encouraging people via decentralized social media to propagate the anti-vaccine belief "sophisticated", noting that it might have been a major contributor to the lack of compliance towards health protocols.[45] According to The Verge, end-to-end encrypted services like WhatsApp and private groups meant the video was still being spread, unbeknown to the public.[46]

Reception

Scene featuring Mikovits standing at a walkway in a lonely forest.
The atmosphere, cinematography, and score of Plandemic are said to be what makes the claims stated sound convincing. Pictured is a cutaway during the video's opening scene.

Scientists, medical doctors, and public health experts condemned Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 for promoting misinformation and NBC News called it "a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories".[44] Governmental organizations, including the Indonesian COVID-19 Task Force, also labeled the video as a hoax, describing it as brainwashing and a red herring to divert the public's attention from real issues.[52] Experts like specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring and disinformation researcher Erin Gallagher said the video's professionally crafted atmosphere, cinematography, and ominously dramatic score made the stated claims sound true; according to Spring; "That makes them as dangerous—if not more so—than advice with a mix of truth and misleading medical myths".[53][54][55]

Science journalist Tara Haelle described the video as pseudoscientific propaganda and said it succeeded at promoting misinformation because it plays on the viewers' confusion and desperation for answers. The opening sequence best targets people unfamiliar with Mikovits, painting her as the scientific industry's underdog, giving a good first impression on her. and editing, The video also uses various modes of persuasion such as the Gish gallop (giving excessive arguments to sound convincing), as well as scientific-looking images and "harrowing" stock footage of dying people during the AIDS scene.[55] Writing for the Deseret News, Amy Iverson expressed sympathy for those who stumbled upon the video in search for "someone to blame" for the effects of the pandemic, however noted "we cannot turn to outrageous, unchecked claims from a few loud voices to ease our concerns. And we definitely should not spread their unsubstantiated claims."[39]

Meanwhile, the British musician Seal expressed love for the video and called the responses to it unjustified. Other public figures including the mixed martial arts fighter Nick Catone, spread the video's misinformation and Melissa Ackison, a Republican politician, supported the video.[56] The video's legacy continues long after its release; in February 2021, The Washington Post reported an anti-mask Facebook page called "Shop Mask Free Los Angeles" used Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 to support its claims. By this time, the Post reported some of the links had suffered from link rot.[57]

The Los Angeles Times contacted yoga teacher and author Shiva Rea, who was a member of the board of directors of the Elevate Foundation; Rea stated she was not associated with the foundation or the film, and found Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 to be "very disturbing".[13]

Mikki Willis' response

Willis said that although he expected the provocative marketing to garner interest, the actual scope of popularity was unexpected.[18] Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Willis said he is not anti-vaccine and that he was merely trying to "start a conversation about science". He described himself as open-minded; "I have a profound love and respect of doctors despite how many doctors are mad at me now". Willis said he is also skeptical of Mikovits' claims in the video; "We’re working very hard right now to validate the majority of the claims that were made" and expressed a willingness to be involved in civil discussions with doctors "on all sides".[13]

ProPublica health care reporter and investigative journalist Marshall Allen contacted Willis, who said Plandemic "is not a piece that’s intended to be perfectly balanced". When asked whether Plandemic might be fairly called propaganda, he said the definition fits, although he did not feel it contains anything misleading. According to Allan, "based on [the definition of propaganda], [Willis] feels 100% of news reporting is propaganda".[21]

The Center for Inquiry's (CFI) Benjamin Radford and researcher Paul Offit asked Willis eight questions about the accuracy of the claims made in the video, either asking for evidence and clarification or asking questions such as "considering that bacteria don’t kill viruses, how would 'healing microbes' reduce or treat coronavirus infection?" Willis agreed to answer all of the questions but he never did. Radford said on the CFI's website:[58]

If the claims made by Mikovits and Willis in Plandemic are based in truth and facts, you’d think they would be eager to offer evidence supporting their claims. What better way to turn the tables on scientists, skeptics, and journalists than to offer a referenced, fact-based, point-by-point rebuttal to critics who offer them a platform? ... Where are their responses? Why are they suddenly so quiet? Why are they afraid to answer questions? What do they have to hide?

Plandemic: Indoctornation

The logo in all caps and a morbid font.
Plandemic: Indoctornation's logo

Summary and fact check

The second installment, an 84-minute film titled Plandemic: Indoctornation[c] was released on August 18, 2020.[59] Willis said the film is a "response video to all the debunkers", and that he worked with a coalition of 7,000 doctors and attorneys to make the film to "reform our medical systems such that they’re not under the stranglehold of Big Pharma".[40] PolitiFact categorized it as a pseudo-documentary.[60]

The film says there is a worldwide conspiracy seeking to control humanity through fear and to make money for the putative conspirators; the COVID-19 pandemic is described as a key moment in a decades-long plan. The film says people and institutions including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Google and the fact-checking agencies it employs, climate scientists, John Oliver, and Bill Gates coordinate with each other to enact the conspiracy.[61]

Plandemic: Indoctornation says COVID-19 was engineered in a laboratory, that Event 201—a 2019 disaster response exercise—was a plan to release a real virus into the population, and that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was ejected from India.[59] The film also says a defensive patent applied by the CDC during the 2003 SARS outbreak was meant to "[control] the proprietary rights to the disease, to the virus, and to its detection and all of the measurement of it".[60] These were later unproven:Event 201 was not a virus conspiracy plot, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation does not have technology allowing it to covertly implant an invisible proof of vaccination.[59] The CDC's defensive patent covers the genetic material detection methods for human coronaviruses so "public research and communication were not jeopardized by commercial parties seeking exclusive private control".[60]

Production and release

The word London Real in all caps, with the word Real being colored red.
Logo of distributor London Real

Immediately after the release of Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19, Willis said he was contacted by an independent producer who said he had worked on projects with HBO, Netflix, and Amazon. The producer asked Willis if he had an interest in collaborating on making a feature-length version, though the Los Angeles Times found the companies had expressed no interest in the film.[13] Soon after Plandemic's release, another set of teams announced the clips from Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 would be part of a documentary feature film.[19]

Plandemic: Indoctornation was released by an online distributor called London Real on the website Digital Freedom Platform, which has promoted several discredited theories about the COVID-19 pandemic,[59] and was founded and managed by podcaster Brian Rose.[60] Because the film's release was promoted in advance, social media platforms were able to prepare for its release rather than scrambling to react to misinformation already circulating on their networks.[59] As part of their policy to counter disinformation about the pandemic, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms took steps to limit the spread of the film as soon as it was posted, affixing warnings to links shared by users. YouTube removed multiple copies of the film and sixteen clips presenting specific sections from its servers.[61] Although no steps to block the content were taken, Facebook warned users when clicking the film's URL, which was blacklisted by TikTok and Instagram.[62]

According to London Real, Plandemic: Indoctornation was watched 1.2 million times by the end of its first day of release but the Digital Forensic Research Lab called the film "a total flop" that achieved much less social media engagement than the original video.[61] Because social media companies were forewarned by the viral nature of the first video, the distribution of Plandemic: Indoctornation was limited.[59] The Daily Dot said the only platform where it succeeded in getting exposure was Facebook, where it had 4,000 views of posts linking to the film on BitChute, where it had 40,000 views.[62]

Reception

Critics compared Plandemic: Indoctornation unfavorably with the first video.[62] Jane Lytvynenko at BuzzFeed News gave it zero stars, saying while the first video presents a protagonist (Mikovits) and a fairly clear narrative, the film does neither: it is "bloated, confused, and filled with nonsense", switching between topics without clearly establishing how all the information presented relate to each other. Its subjects are said to be cliché with respect to the first video. Lytvynenko said Willis' initial claim 'the first video is a trailer for a feature film is incorrect; while Plandemic: Indoctornation discusses the same themes and includes Mikovits, most of the material in the first video is not used in the feature-length film.[61]

Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening

Willis teamed up with Del Bigtree, the founder of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, to release another film, Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening on Bigtree's website The Highwire.[14] In February 2023, a rough cut was screened at the "Rabbit Room" section of the 21st Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles, a New Age and far-right conspiracy event[63] where he won a humanitarian award in 2008.[17] The trailer was released on May 23, 2023, and the film itself on June 3. Its promotional tagline, placed at a "slick" official website, is "100% Censored, 0% Debunked." The fact-checking organization Logically reported that the trailer earned two million views on Twitter as of May 31.[14] The 101-minute film is said to be dedicated to conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, with archival clips of him used sporadically.[64]

The film begins with Willis claiming that his AIDS-infected brother died of consuming the treatment drug zidovudine. PolitiFact and Agence France-Presse found no evidence that it caused the deaths of AIDS patients. The clip circulated in Instagram, but was then flagged by owner Meta.[65][66] Willis then says that COVID-19 lockdowns are "synchronized tyranny" aimed at controlling the masses. The trailer includes out-of-context clips of world leaders and politicians discussing the Great Reset at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and features personalities who have promoted misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines, including Ghent University professor Mattias Desmet and Vladimir Zelenko.[d][14] The film also misleadingly depicts WEF founder Klaus Schwab as creating a "purported plot for a unified world government" as well as a Nazi due to him being born in Nazi Germany. It also falsely covers the George Floyd protests (calling Black Lives Matter a pro-communist organization), antifa protests, and a Washington state bill regarding gender transition surgery.[64]

See also

Similar films

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Born 1967 or 1968[13]
  2. ^ The title of a book Mikovits co-authored (full title: Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science).
  3. ^ The word "Doctor" is highlighted in the logo as a play of the word "indoctrination"
  4. ^ The film is also dedicated to the late Zelenko, per the end credits

References

  1. ^ Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, Iosifidis C, Agha R (April 1, 2020). "World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19)". International Journal of Surgery. Elsevier. 76: 71–76. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.02.034. ISSN 1743-9191. PMC 7105032. PMID 32112977.
  2. ^ "COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)". ArcGIS. Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  3. ^ Schwartz K (March 11, 2021). "I'm a U.S. Citizen. Where in the World Can I Go?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  4. ^ Hensley L (March 23, 2020). "Social distancing is out, physical distancing is in—here's how to do it". Global News. Corus Entertainment. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  5. ^ Sandford A (April 2, 2020). "Coronavirus: Half of humanity on lockdown in 90 countries". Euronews. Associated Press; Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  6. ^ Beaumont P (November 18, 2020). "Covid-19 vaccine: who are countries prioritising for first doses?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
  7. ^ Kortepeter M (August 21, 2020). "A Defense Expert Explores Whether The Covid-19 Coronavirus Makes A Good Bioweapon". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  8. ^ "Beware of Fraudulent Coronavirus Tests, Vaccines and Treatments". Food and Drug Administration. March 1, 2021. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  9. ^ Lombardi VC, Ruscetti FW, Das Gupta J, et al. (October 2009). "Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 326 (5952): 585–89. Bibcode:2009Sci...326..585L. doi:10.1126/science.1179052. PMC 3073172. PMID 19815723. (Retracted)
  10. ^ Kisken T (July 5, 2019). "New group of Ventura County vaccine skeptics take shots at exemption bill". Ventura County Star. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  11. ^ Flam F (December 23, 2011). "Why Chronic Fatigue Study is Wrong, Maybe Fraudulent, but Biology Is Not a Hoax". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  12. ^ Merlan A (April 22, 2020). "The Coronavirus Truthers Don't Believe in Public Health". Vice. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2020. In the same video, Mikovits rejected the notion of wearing a mask, since, she claimed, the coronavirus is actually secretly caused by a bad strain of flu shot that was circulating between 2013 and 2015.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rottenberg J, Perman S (May 13, 2020). "Meet the Ojai dad who made the most notorious piece of coronavirus disinformation yet". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  14. ^ a b c d Sethi P, Roy S, Smith A (May 31, 2023). "The predictable polemic of 'Plandemic'". Logically Facts. Archived from the original on June 1, 2023. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c Garza GY (December 2020). Constructing a Covid19 conspiracy: A fantasy theme analysis of the 2020 documentary "Plandemic" (PDF) (Thesis). San Marcos: Texas State University. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  16. ^ "Nonprofi Explorer: Elevate Foundation". ProPublica. May 9, 2013. Archived from the original on February 1, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  17. ^ a b "Mikki Willis". Annenberg Space for Photography. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  18. ^ a b c Feeld J, Rockatansky J, View T (2023). "Premium Episode 201: Attending Plandemic 3 & a Mikki Willis Talk at the Conscious Life Expo (Sample)". QAnon Anonymous (Podcast). SoundCloud. Event occurs at 2:11-3:44; 4:34-5:03. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g Funke D (May 8, 2020). "Fact-checking 'Plandemic': A documentary full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus". PolitiFact. Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  20. ^ a b c Hatmaker T (May 7, 2020). "Platforms scramble as 'Plandemic' conspiracy video spreads misinformation like wildfire". TechCrunch. Verizon Media. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  21. ^ a b Allen M (May 9, 2020). "I'm an Investigative Journalist. These Are the Questions I Asked About the Viral "Plandemic" Video". ProPublica. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  22. ^ Maxmen A, Mallapaty S (June 8, 2021). "The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don't know". Nature. 594 (7863): 313–315. Bibcode:2021Natur.594..313M. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01529-3. PMID 34108722. S2CID 235395594. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021.
  23. ^ Lu R, Zhao X, Li J, Niu P, Yang B, Wu H, Wang W, Song H, Huang B, Zhu N, Bi Y (February 22, 2020). "Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding". The Lancet. Elsevier. 395 (10224): 565–574. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30251-8. ISSN 0140-6736. PMC 7159086. PMID 32007145.
  24. ^ Rogers M (April 24, 2020). "Fact check: Hospitals get paid more if patients listed as COVID-19, on ventilators". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 12, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  25. ^ Kertscher T (April 21, 2020). "Fact-check: Hospitals and COVID-19 payments". PolitiFact. Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on May 9, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  26. ^ Palma B (April 17, 2020). "Are Doctors and Hospitals Paid More for COVID-19 Patients?". Snopes. Proper Media. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  27. ^ Richardson I (April 17, 2020). "Fact check: Is US coronavirus death toll inflated? Experts agree it's likely the opposite". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 9, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  28. ^ Marcus A (April 6, 2020). "Hydroxychloroquine-COVID-19 study did not meet publishing society's "expected standard"". Retraction Watch. Center for Scientific Integrity. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  29. ^ "Further evidence does not support hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19: Adverse events were more common in those receiving the drug". ScienceDaily. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  30. ^ "Antiviral Therapy". COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines. National Institutes of Health. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  31. ^ a b Teoh F, ed. (March 30, 2020). "Claim that flu vaccine increases coronavirus infection is unsupported, misinterprets scientific studies". Health Feedback. Science Feedback. Archived from the original on May 8, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  32. ^ Wolff GG (January 10, 2020). "Influenza vaccination and respiratory virus interference among Department of Defense personnel during the 2017–2018 influenza season". Vaccine. 38 (2): 350–354. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.10.005. ISSN 0264-410X. PMC 7126676. PMID 31607599.
  33. ^ Richardson I (April 1, 2020). "Fact check: Getting flu shot doesn't make you more (or less) likely to get the coronavirus". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 8, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  34. ^ Elliott J (May 11, 2020). "Viral 'Plandemic' clip pushes wild claims about coronavirus, masks and vaccines". Global News. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  35. ^ Kasten J (May 12, 2020). "What Judy Mikovits Gets Wrong— Pretty much everything, pathologist argues". MedPage Today. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  36. ^ Cohen J (May 8, 2020). Enserink M (ed.). "Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original on May 12, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  37. ^ Landsverk G, Woodward A (May 22, 2020). "A point-by-point debunk of the 'Plandemic' movie, which was shared widely before YouTube and Facebook took it down". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  38. ^ "Coronavirus: 'Plandemic' virus conspiracy video spreads across social media". BBC News. May 8, 2020. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  39. ^ a b Iverson A (May 16, 2020). "Amy Iverson: Why the 'Plandemic' viral video is dangerous". Deseret News. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  40. ^ a b Widger A (May 15, 2020). "Ojai filmmaker's 'Plandemic' video goes viral". Ojai Valley News. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  41. ^ a b Dwoskin E (May 20, 2020). "Misinformation about coronavirus finds new avenues on unexpected sites". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  42. ^ Frenkel S, Decker B, Alba D (May 20, 2020). "How the 'Plandemic' Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread Widely Online". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  43. ^ Hayden ME, Squire M (February 1, 2023). "Infowars' Alex Jones Says He Lives 'in Hell,' Texts Show". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  44. ^ a b Zadrozny B, Collins B (May 7, 2020). "As '#Plandemic' goes viral, those targeted by discredited scientist's crusade warn of 'dangerous' claims". NBC News. Archived from the original on May 9, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  45. ^ a b Nazar S, Pieters T (July 14, 2021). Metze T (ed.). Reviewed by Rovetta, Alessandro; Chen, Junxiang. "Plandemic Revisited: A Product of Planned Disinformation Amplifying the COVID-19 "infodemic"". Frontiers in Public Health. 9: 649930. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.649930. ISSN 2296-2565. PMC 8318131. PMID 34336759.
  46. ^ a b Newton C (May 12, 2020). "How the 'Plandemic' video hoax went viral". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  47. ^ Graham M (May 7, 2020). "Facebook, YouTube and other platforms are struggling to remove new pandemic conspiracy video". CNBC. NBCUniversal News Group. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  48. ^ Cook J, Linden Sv, Lewandowsky S, Ecker U (May 16, 2020). "Coronavirus, 'Plandemic' and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking". The Conversation. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  49. ^ Andrews TM (May 7, 2020). "Facebook and other companies are removing viral 'Plandemic' conspiracy video". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 12, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  50. ^ Strapagiel L (May 27, 2020). "COVID-19 Conspiracy Theorists Have Found A New Home On TikTok". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  51. ^ Bellemare A, Nicholson K, Jason H (May 21, 2020). "How a debunked COVID-19 video kept spreading after Facebook and YouTube took it down". CBC News. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  52. ^ "[SALAH] Video "Plandemic"" [[FALSE] "Plandemic" Video]. Satuan Tugas Penanganan COVID-19 (in Indonesian). Government of Indonesia. May 10, 2020. Archived from the original on July 15, 2020. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  53. ^ "Coronavirus: 'Plandemic' virus conspiracy video spreads across social media-GB". BBC News. May 8, 2020. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  54. ^ Wilson J, Gallagher E (May 14, 2020). "Plandemic: how the debunked movie by discredited researcher Judy Mikovits went viral". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  55. ^ a b Haelle T (May 8, 2020). "Why It's Important To Push Back On 'Plandemic'—And How To Do It". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  56. ^ Kirkpatrick E (June 8, 2020). "Where Has Seal Been? Watching Your Instagram Stories (and 'Plandemic')". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  57. ^ Stanley-Becker I, Kornfield M (February 2, 2021). "Anti-vaccine protest at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook, including promotion of banned 'Plandemic' video". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  58. ^ Radford B (May 21, 2020). "'Plandemic' Asks Questions—But Won't Answer Them". Center for Inquiry. Archived from the original on May 21, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  59. ^ a b c d e f Dunlop W (August 19, 2020). "New 'Plandemic' film promotes coronavirus conspiracy theory". AFP Fact Check. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  60. ^ a b c d Funke D (August 18, 2020). "Fact-checking 'Plandemic 2': Another video full of conspiracy theories about COVID-19". PolitiFact. Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  61. ^ a b c d Lytvynenko J (August 18, 2020). "The "Plandemic" Sequel Is Here. We Give It Zero Stars". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  62. ^ a b c Rothschild M (August 19, 2020). "Why the sequel to a massive coronavirus conspiracy movie completely flopped". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  63. ^ Sandlin J (February 25, 2023). "Chakras aligned and conspiracies entertained at the Conscious Life Expo". Boing Boing. Happy Mutants. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  64. ^ a b Payne E (June 7, 2023). "Fact Check: 'Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening' Video Is Laundry List Of False, Misleading Claims From Last Six Decades". Lead Stories. Archived from the original on July 11, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  65. ^ Tuquero L (June 9, 2023). "No evidence of azidothymidine, or AZT, killing 'hundreds of thousands' of people". PolitiFact. Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  66. ^ Funke D (June 10, 2023). "'Plandemic 3' inspires false claims about early HIV treatment". AFP Fact Check. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.

External links

COVID-19 pandemic
Disinformation and misinformation
Categories