Authors
An article published by Madison Area Lyme Support Group lists a variety of claims related to COVID-19 claiming it’s “proof that the pandemic was planned and with purpose.”
In it’s about section, the group describes itself as a “not a *non-profit* nor a *business* just a volunteered run website to share educational info and give dates, times and places for meetings,” for anyone looking for help and support.
You can view the entire article here.
Newschecker received multiple requests to verify this article on their Whatsapp verification helpline number (9999499044).
Fact Check / Verification
The article published by Madison Area Lyme Support Group on 30 September 2020 lists a variety of false and unsubstantiated claims as evidence of “proof that the pandemic was planned.” We debunk a selection of these claims below.
German Medical Doctors
A group of over 500 medical doctors in Germany called “Doctors for Information” in a statement during a national press conference claimed that “The Corona panic is a play. It’s a scam. A swindle. It’s high time we understood that we’re in the midst of a global crime.”
The group “Doctors for Education” does exist, but it’s not considered a reliable source. Correctiv, a German fact-checking organisation, has previously debunked multiple claims about masks, PCR tests, and COVID-19 vaccine made by the group. You can read an example here.
World Bank
The article claims, “The World Bank shows that COVID-19 is a project that is planned to continue until… end of March 2025! So the intention is to continue it for another FIVE YEARS.”
The claim comes with a screenshot of a document from the World Bank titled, “World COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Program”. It highlights an “Expected Project Closing Date” of March 31, 2025.
We found the original document which states that the aim of the project “is to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness.” It details out its phase-wise strategy to cope with the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and human life.
Inevitably, the entire world has taken a hit due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and will require continual support to recover in the coming years. This does not imply that the pandemic is a project planned to continue for the next five years.
Bill Gates And Vaccines
The article points to a December 2019 tweet by Bill Gates which reads, “What’s next for our foundation? I’m particularly excited about what the next year could mean for one of the best buys in global health: vaccines”
The tweet, though real, does not indicate that the pandemic was planned for profit, as the article suggests. We found no credible evidence to substantiate this claim. Also, Gates could have been referring to a number of vaccines which were in development at the time.
Newschecker has previously debunked false and misleading claims attributed to Bill Gates. You can read it here.
COVID-19 Patent
“In 2015 a ‘System and Method for Testing for COVID-19’ was patented by Richard Rothschild, with a Dutch government organisation. Did you catch that? In 2015 – four years before the disease even existed – a testing method for COVID-19 was developed,” reads the claim.
The screenshot with the claims shows a patent for a “System and Method for Testing for COVID-19” on a website.
We found that while the patent is legitimate, there’s confusion between its priority date (Prioriteitsdatum, which is Dutch for priority) and application date. Richard Rothschild had filed a patent in this family of patents in 2015. But a system that analyses biometric data to determine whether a user is suffering from a viral infection such as COVID-19 was filed on May 17, 2020.
This fact-check will be updated as and when we debunk the remainder of the claims listed in the pandemic-related article on the Madison Area Lyme Support Group website.
Also Read: The story behind the widely shared ‘Plandemic’ conspiracy video
Conclusion
An article published by Madison Area Lyme Support Group lists a variety of false and misleading claims related to COVID-19 claiming its “proof that the pandemic was planned and with purpose.”
Result: False
Our Sources
Bill Gates’s 2019 Tweet: https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1207681997612748801
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