![Two men interviewing each other, whilst microphones record their speech.](https://web.archive.org/web/20210310092153im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/91/Plandemic_behind_the_scene.jpg/297px-Plandemic_behind_the_scene.jpg)
Plandemic is a pair of 2020 conspiracy theory videos produced by Mikki Willis which promote misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. They feature Judy Mikovits, a discredited former researcher who has been described as an anti-vaccine activist despite her rejection of the label. Willis produced the video with a low budget and released it under the name of his production company, Elevate Films. Other people are featured in the second video, Plandemic: Indoctornation, which was released three months after the first video. Other than COVID-19 subjects, the films also talk about viruses in general and Mikovits herself.
The first video went viral instantly, becoming one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation. It was soon removed by multiple platforms, although the responses failed to successfully stop the video's proliferation. However, due to social media companies' preparation, Indoctornation did not get as much attention. The videos were criticized by scientists and health professionals for their misleading claims while the professional filmmaking style has been cited as lending to the conspiratorial and brainwashing nature of the films. Indoctornation was especially received poorly for its narrative quality. Sinclair Broadcast Group interviewed Mikovits regarding the videos, but the interview did not air.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The outbreak was declared an international health emergency in January 2020[3] and a pandemic in March 11.[4] It has caused tens of millions to contract the disease, portions of which died. As a result, travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and many other precautions have been taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, whilst many vaccines have been distributed.
As with many medical topics, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the pandemic emerged, spread by both ordinary citizens and politicians. Such misinformation focuses on the scale of the pandemic, as well as the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment of the disease. Misinformation includes claims the virus is either a bioweapon control the population,[5] a form of espionage,[6] or an effect of 5G networks.[7] Some people have also claimed magic or faith-based cures to the disease.
The word plandemic, a portmanteau of "plan" + "pandemic",[α] is not a new term. It had been used in 2006 by The Sydney Morning Herald.[9]
Judy Anne Mikovits (born 1957 or 1958) is a former American research scientist who is known for her discredited medical claims, such as that murine endogenous retroviruses are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome.[10] She has been engaged in anti-vaccination activism, promoted conspiracy theories,[11] and been accused of scientific misconduct.[12] Prior to Plandemic, Mikovits had expressed support for various COVID-19 conspiracy theories, claiming, for example, that the pandemic is merely a predictable flu season.[13]
First video
Summary
The first video, titled Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19,[14] promotes the conspiracist claim that vaccines are "a money-making enterprise that causes medical harm",[15] with themes of the loss of free speech/free choice.[16]:19 It takes the form of an interview between the producer, Mikki Willis, and Mikovits, in which Mikovits makes numerous unsupported or false claims around coronavirus, and her own controversial history.[14]
Fact-checker PolitiFact highlighted eight false or misleading claims made in the video, including:[14]
- 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.[14] When asked, both Mikovits and Willis admitted that it was an error to say she had not been charged, and she had meant to say that the charges were dropped, Mikovits saying that "I've been confused for a decade" and that in future she would try to be more clear when she talks about the criminal charge ("I'll try to learn to say it differently.").[17]
- 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".[18]
- That the virus occurred from SARS-1 within a decade, and this is inconsistent with natural causes. This is incorrect: SARS-CoV-2 is similar but not directly descended from SARS-CoV (SARS-1), with only 79% genetic similarity.[19]
- That hospitals receive $13,000 from Medicare if they "call it COVID-19" when a patient dies. This claim, which had previously been made on The American Spectator and WorldNetDaily,[20] was rated "half true" by PolitiFact[21] and Snopes:[22] payments are made, but the amount is open to dispute, and there is no evidence that this influences diagnosis, and the evidence suggests that COVID-19 is, possibly, under-diagnosed.[23]
- 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.[24] The first randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 found no evidence of benefit and some evidence of harm.[25] The NIH says that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against this use.[26] As of May 7, 2020, other bodies were running additional controlled trials to investigate hydroxychloroquine's safety and efficacy.[14]:1
- That flu vaccines increase the chance of contracting COVID-19 by 36%. This claim is false:[27] it misinterprets a disputed article that studied the 2017—2018 influenza season, predating the COVID-19 pandemic. The claim that the flu vaccine increases the chance of contracting COVID-19 does not appear in the original article at all. The author (Greg G. Wolff) wrote that coronavirus cases increased from 5.8% (non-vaccinated) to 7.8% (vaccinated) with an odds ratio of 1.36, with (1.14, 1.63) 95% confidence interval, and the article highlight said: "Vaccinated personnel did not have significant odds of respiratory illnesses".[28] The article was referring to seasonal coronaviruses (common cold), but COVID-19 was added by the website disabledveterans.org.[27]
![A pamphlet encouraging citizens to wear masks to protect the community. It is stricken by a marker, which reads, "Lies".](https://web.archive.org/web/20210310092153im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Life_in_the_Time_of_Covid_%2850345684617%29.jpg/280px-Life_in_the_Time_of_Covid_%2850345684617%29.jpg)
- That despite the goal of preventing coronaviruses, flu vaccines themselves contain coronaviruses. In reality, there are no vaccines with coronaviruses.[29]
- That "Wearing the mask literally activates your own virus. You're getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expressions." This claim is 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;[30] a virus may be de-activated, but cannot add to one's infection level if it leaves the body even temporarily.[31]
Science also repeats some of the points given by PolitiFact, and fact-checked some other claims too, where Mikovits and Willis claimed:[32]
- That Italy's COVID-19 epidemic has links with influenza vaccines and the presence of coronaviruses in dogs. There is no relation whatsoever between the three.
- That SARS-CoV-2 was created "between the North Carolina laboratories, Fort Detrick, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the Wuhan laboratory." Science says that considering the relations between the US and the Wuhan lab has stopped, the claim is certainly false.
- That Mikovits is not anti-vaccine. Science argued otherwise, saying that she once wore a Vaxxed II merchandise, a sequel to a film promoting the claim that MMR vaccines cause autism, as well as that she once sent a PowerPoint presentation to them calling for an "immediate moratorium" for "all vaccines."
- That the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "colluded and destroyed" Mikovits' reputation, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did nothing but secreting it. Science responded that "Mikovits has presented no direct evidence that HHS heads colluded against her."
- That Mikovits's article on Science "revealed that the common use of animal and human fetal tissues was unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases", when the article does not reveal anything of the sort.
- That Mikovits's Ph.D. thesis Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes "revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS", when the thesis "had no discernible impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS."
Mikovits also alludes to a number of conspiracy theories that claim Bill Gates is implicated in causing the pandemic in order to profit from an eventual vaccine,[15] 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".[33] The video claims that the numbers of COVID-19 deaths are purposely being misreported in an effort to control people.[34]
Willis' previous credits include numerous conspiracy theorist videos, as well as cinematography on Neurons to Nirvana, a film that makes therapeutic claims about psychedelics.[14] External videos were also included in the video, such as a video of a chiropractor who claimed that tonic water can treat or even prevent COVID-19, and a video of a press conference among doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi in Bakersfield, California alleging that the COVID-19 pandemic was overhyped. These external videos were also disputed beforehand.[35]
Production
![The word Elevate in all caps, with the word V resembling a diamond.](https://web.archive.org/web/20210310092153im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Elevate_logo.png/252px-Elevate_logo.png)
The idea of producing Plandemic was said to be a struggle, according to Willis. At that time, he was aware that getting involved in such 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 said. He was motivated to make the film by a generalized skepticism of the medical industry due to his memory of the deaths of his brother and mother from AIDS and cancer, respectively, when he was in his 20s.[36]
Willis met Mikovits for the first time in 2019, via mutual friends. Willis, a native of Ojai, California, claimed via the Ojai Valley News that "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." He also said that shooting took a day, and editing took two weeks. He claimed that he halted continuation in editing a film he made in 2019, that "Plandemic was the priority." Initially, he is also unsure whether to make a continuation or not.[2] With a cinematographer and researcher paid to join in the project, Willis calculated the budget at less than US$2,000.[36]
Willis, a low-budget filmmaker who was 52 years old at the time of release, teamed up with his wife Nadia Salamanca (with whom he has two sons) on marketing the video. The branding of it was intentionally conspiratorial, in order to gain attention wherein in modern society is perceived to be hard to gain. The title, Plandemic, was the majority opinion in a Facebook poll conducted by Willis.[36]
Release
The video was released on May 4, 2020.[37] It spread virally on social media, garnering millions of views,[15] making it one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation. "Judy Mikovits" became a trending search on Google for two days.[38] Before being removed, one of the videos featuring the work reached 1 million views.[39] However, despite getting removed, views of the video on the original site continued to increase.[40] The legacy of the video continues long after its release: in February 2021, The Washington Post reported that an anti-mask Facebook page called Shop Mask Free Los Angeles used Plandemic as a citation to their claims. By this time, the Post reported that some of the links had suffered from link rot.[41]
A YouTube spokesperson said that the platform will be removing videos supporting the claims of Plandemic without sufficient evidence, highlighting that it is "[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 their policies on misinformation. Twitter said that hashtags like #PlagueofCorruption and #PlandemicMovie have been blacklisted, however noted that not all of Mikovits' Twitter attempts to spread propaganda necessarily violated their policies. By the time it was removed from Facebook, the film had reached 1.8 million views, 17,000 comments, and "nearly" 150,000 shares.[42] On TikTok, it continued to find popularity via clips excerpted from the full video, some of which were removed by the platform.[43]
Responding to the first wave of interest, those involved announced that the clips were going to be part of a "documentary feature film",[14] later named Plandemic: Indoctornation.
Reception
Scientists, medical doctors, and public health experts condemned the film for promoting misinformation and "a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories", as described by NBC News.[38] Governmental organizations, including the Indonesian COVID-19 Task Force, also stamped the film a hoax, describing the video as a brainwashing and a red herring to divert the public's attention from real issues.[44] Specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring, writing for BBC News, as well as disinformation researcher Erin Gallagher, interviewed by The Guardian, remarked that it was the professionally-crafted atmosphere, cinematography, and ominously dramatic score that made the stated claims sound true. "That makes them as dangerous—if not more so—than advice with a mix of truth and misleading medical myths".[45][46] The Los Angeles Times reached out to Shiva Rea, a woman who was listed as a member of the board of directors of the Elevate Foundation, who stated that she was not associated with the foundation or the film and further found Plandemic to be "very disturbing."[36]
Science journalist Tara Haelle described the video as propaganda and posited that the video "has been extremely successful at promoting misinformation for three reasons":[47]
- It "taps into people's uncertainty, anxiety and need for answers";
- It "is packaged very professionally and uses common conventions people already associate with factual documentaries"; and
- It effectively exploits various methods of persuasion, including the use of a seemingly trustworthy and sympathetic narrator, appeals to emotion, the Gish gallop, and "sciencey" images.
Zarine Kharazian, the assistant editor of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, described the response to the removal of the video from Facebook and YouTube as a "censorship backfire", invoking the Streisand effect.[48]
Writing for the Deseret News, journalist Amy Iverson attempted to explain the emotional baggage of those who are tempted to spread misinformation about the pandemic: "I understand many of us are confused and feel helpless and hopeless at times these days. We want someone to blame. But 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."[35]
Mikki Willis' response
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Willis said that he was not anti-vaccine, instead insisting 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." He said that he is also skeptical of the many claims Mikovits throws out 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".[36]
ProPublica health care reporter and investigative journalist Marshall Allen contacted Willis; Willis says that Plandemic "is not a piece that’s intended to be perfectly balanced." When asked whether the video would be suitable to be called propaganda, which is "information [...] of a biased or misleading nature" as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, he opined that although he thinks there's no misinformation in the video, the definition fits. He also thinks that by the definition, "100% of news reporting [related to Plandemic] is propaganda."[17]
The Center for Inquiry's (CFI) Benjamin Radford and Paul Offit gave Willis eight questions concerning the accuracy of the claims made in the video, either asking for evidence, clarification, or a general question such as "considering that bacteria don’t kill viruses, how would "healing microbes" reduce or treat coronavirus infection?" While Willis agreed to answer all of the questions, he never did. Radford reacted on the CFI's website: "If the claims made [...] in Plandemic are [factual], you’d think they would be eager to [prove it]. Where are their responses? Why are they suddenly so quiet? Why are they afraid to answer questions? What do they have to hide?"[49]
Plandemic: Indoctornation
Summary
The 84-minute sequel, titled Plandemic: Indoctornation (the word "Doctor" being highlighted in the logo as an altering of the word indoctrination), was released on August 18, 2020.[50] Willis says that 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 with the goal to "reform our medical systems such that they’re not under the stranglehold of Big Pharma."[2]
The video argues that there is a worldwide conspiracy seeking to control the entire human population through fear and make money for the putative conspirators; the COVID-19 pandemic is described as a key moment in a decades-long plan. It also claims that sand can cure COVID-19. The movie claims that people and institutions as various as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Google and the fact-checking agencies it employs, climate scientists, John Oliver, and Bill Gates somehow coordinate with each other to enact the conspiracy.[51]
The film's thesis relies on a number of claims that have been discredited. For example, COVID-19 was not engineered in a laboratory and Event 201, a 2019 disaster response exercise, was not a plan to release an actual virus into the population. Despite what it alleged, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation continues to fund projects in India and cooperates with the Indian government on several initiatives; it does not have technology allowing it to covertly implant an invisible proof of vaccination.[50] According to PolitiFact, who categorized the film as a pseudo-documentary, in spite of the film claiming that a 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", instead the defensive patent covers the genetic material detection methods for human coronaviruses specifically so that "public research and communication were not jeopardised by commercial parties seeking exclusive private control."[52]
Production and release
In the immediate aftermath of the release of Plandemic, Willis said he was contacted by an independent producer said to have worked on projects with HBO, Netflix, and Amazon, asking if he had interest in affiliating with him on making a feature-length version, though the Los Angeles Times found that the companies had expressed no interest in the film.[36]
The film 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. Because it was promoted in advance, social media platforms were able to prepare ahead of its release instead of scrambling to react to misinformation already circulating on their networks.[50] As part of their policy to counter disinformation about the pandemic, Facebook, Twitter and others took steps to limit the spread of the film as soon as it was posted, affixing warnings to links users shared. YouTube removed from its service multiple copies of the film, as well as sixteen clips presenting specific sections.[51] Facebook warned users when clicking the original film's link, although no steps to block the content were taken. TikTok and Instagram blacklisted the link.[53]
London Real claimed it was seen 1.2 million times by the end of the first day, but the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab called it "a total flop", with much lower levels of social media engagement than the shorter version.[51] Because social media companies were forewarned by the viral sensation of the first video, the distribution of Plandemic: Indoctornation was limited.[50] The Daily Dot says that the only platform where it succeeded in getting exposure was Facebook with 4,000 views, linking to the film's link on BitChute, with 40,000 views.[53]
Reception
Jane Lytvynenko at BuzzFeed News gave it "0 stars", saying that while the first video presents a protagonist (Mikovits) and a fairly clear narrative, Plandemic: Indoctornation lacks that focus. The video jumps from one topic to the next without establishing clearly how the various pieces of information presented relate to each other, the result being "bloated, confused, and filled with nonsense". Mikovits appears only to respond to criticism about elements of the first video, according to Lytvynenko. She also said that "As a piece of journalism, it is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. As a piece of entertainment, it is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom", and "Just like the Emperor returning in The Rise of Skywalker, Plandemic: Indoctornation leans on old, familiar characters instead of inventing new ones." Lytvynenko said that the producers' initial claim of the first film being a trailer for a feature film was seemingly false: while the second one picks up on some of the same themes and also features Mikovits, it is noted the most of the "trailer" isn't used in the feature-length film.[51] Mike Rothschild of The Daily Dot opined it is "not as good" as the first video.[53]
Sinclair Broadcasting Group
In July 2020, Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBG) scheduled to air an interview with Judy Mikovits and her lawyer Larry Klayman,[55] conducted by Eric Bolling on his America This Week show. During the interview, Mikovits put forth a baseless claim that Fauci created COVID-19 and sent it to China. Bolling did not argue against Mikovits' allegation or fact-check it on-air, although he claimed that he had indeed argued against Mikovits by calling her allegation "hefty".[56] SBG distributed the interview to its local stations, and also released the interview online, with an on-screen graphic of "Did Dr. Fauci create COVID-19?"[57] After media reports regarding the interview emerged, SBG received substantial criticism, resulting in Sinclair stating that they would delay the television release of the interview by around a week.[58] They later decided to drop the segment entirely.[59]
See also
- Big Pharma conspiracy theory
- COVID-19 vaccine
- Protests over responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019
Similar films
- The Other Side of AIDS, a 2004 film alleging that HIV does not cause AIDS and that HIV treatments are harmful
- House of Numbers: Anatomy of an Epidemic, a 2009 film also alleging that HIV does not cause AIDS
- The Greater Good, a 2011 film also alleging that MMR vaccines cause autism, sponsored by pseudoscientist Joseph Mercola
Explanatory notes
- ^ An alternative mixture to this would be "plan" + "demic", which was said at the second video. "Demic", according to the Collins Dictionary, which was identified at the second film Plandemic: Indoctornation, is "characteristic of pertaining to a people or population."[8]
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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.
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Claim: Mikovits also stated that closing beaches is 'insanity' because the sand, ocean, and salt water contain 'healing microbes.' Fact: [microbiologist Dr. Miryam] Wahrman said that's just not true. While being outdoors is pleasant and important for wellbeing, it's not a panacea. 'I love swimming in the ocean. I believe it's healthy and it's very nice. But there are no microorganisms in the ocean that will do any magic to keep you healthy in this time or any other time, and if there were, they would be so dilute as to not do anything,' she said.
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