Fact check: ‘Plandemic’ sequel makes false claims about Bill Gates

The claim: The Gates family is behind a sprawling conspiracy to control the world through vaccines, engineered COVID-19 pandemic

“Plandemic: Indoctornation,” the misinformation-filled video that debuted online Aug. 18, draws numerous high-profile figures into its plot. Chief among them is Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The nearly 75-minute video, a sequel to May’s widely discredited “Plandemic,” makes several baseless claims about the tech mogul and philanthropist, including that Gates and the various enterprises and charities he’s headed are engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to control the world through vaccines.

“Considering that Bill Gates has donated half of his fortune to make the world safer, why didn’t he help to better prepare our hospitals and front-line workers?” the video’s narrator asks.

The video insinuates that because the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded several pandemic simulations, Gates planned and engineered the coronavirus pandemic.

The video also makes several false claims about the safety of vaccines, especially in developing countries.

“Of all the places that Mr. Gates could have gone in the world, why settle on Africa? It’s not because he cares about people who look like me; it’s because he has an agenda,” one of the video’s commentators states.

The video essentially contends that Gates engineered the coronavirus pandemic because he stands to profit politically and financially from the coronavirus. There is no evidence to support these claims.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been very involved in funding public health initiatives around the world since its founding and is similarly financing many programs combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither the foundation nor the Gates family stands to profit from the pandemic.

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Gates Foundation’s past investments revisited

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is reportedly the largest private foundation of its type in the world, with $46.8 billion in assets. Founded in 2000, the foundation has mainly engaged in philanthropic endeavors through impact investing.

The Gates family has given over $50 billion to various charities, including numerous groups that engage in global health and vaccination initiatives.

“Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives,” the foundation said in a statement to USA TODAY.

“In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people — especially those with the fewest resources — have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life,” the statement continues.

The “Plandemic” sequel briefly alludes to past controversies involving the Gates Foundation as reasons to distrust the foundation’s current motivations and the efficacy of vaccinations in general.

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The video briefly alluded to 2007 reporting from the Los Angeles Times, which found the foundation’s endowment invests in many companies that purportedly cause the social ills the Gates Foundation is attempting to solve.

The video also references a 2013 controversy, when a Gates Foundation-funded vaccine study in India was poorly conducted and highlighted a weak regulatory environment in the country around pharmaceuticals.

Neither controversy substantiates the film’s narrative that the Gates Foundation is actively involved in wrongdoing related to vaccines.

More:Bill Gates is quietly advocating for the US to lead the global fight against COVID-19

In the 2013 case, it is crucial to note that an investigation into the deaths of participants in the Gates-funded study concluded the deaths were not connected to the vaccine itself. Some were poisoned by insecticide, others fell ill because of malaria and at least one was a suspected suicide.

That year, the Indian government punished the American and Indian organizations that had poorly conducted the research. The Gates Foundation was not involved in the direct operations of the study.

In neither case did the Gates Foundation stand to profit from its investments in the projects. It, like most large endowed institutions, invests in for-profit enterprises to grow its assets for further investment. This strategy is shared across large foundations and many universities with large endowments.

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Gates Foundation pandemic preparedness work and COVID-19

“Plandemic: Indoctornation” also makes several insinuations about the Gates Foundation’s interests in global health work, falsely claiming that Bill Gates has a financial interest in the pandemic and also that he and others predicted and engineered the global outbreak. There is no evidence in support of these claims.

The Gates Foundation has played a large role in funding coronavirus vaccine research. Bill Gates, long a vocal proponent of pandemic preparedness, has also been a high-profile advocate of a coordinated coronavirus response. That celebrity has also made him a target for a slew of conspiracy theories.

The video points to the Gates Foundation’s participation in the Johns Hopkins University pandemic preparedness gathering Event 201 as evidence that Gates had been planning the COVID-19 pandemic for years. There is no evidence to support these claims.

While the Gates Foundation has given funding to several of the vaccine programs now in development, that philanthropy will not yield a return on investment for the institution. The foundation trust’s most recent holding report does not include any investments in companies that are developing COVID-19 vaccines.

Fact check:Melinda Gates didn’t exactly say Black people ‘must’ be vaccinated for COVID-19

Our ruling: False

“Plandemic: Indoctornation” makes a slew of unfounded insinuations about Bill Gates, including references to some past events involving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There is no evidence to substantiate the video’s claims that Gates planned, engineered and stands to profit from the coronavirus pandemic. We rate this claim FALSE because it is not supported by our research.

Our fact-check sources:

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Fact Sheet
• Investopedia, Oct 9, 2019, Impact Investing
• USA TODAY, June 11, 2020, Fact check: Bill Gates has given over $50 billion to charitable causes over career
• Los Angeles Times, Jan 7, 2007, Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation
• Financial Times, Nov. 18, 2013, Vaccination scandal taints reputation of India drug trials
• Science Magazine, Sept. 9, 2013, Indian Parliament Comes Down Hard on Cervical Cancer Trial
• Wealth Management, June 29, 2018, Endowment Investing 101
• USA TODAY, March 26, 2020, Fact check: A Bill Gates-backed pandemic simulation in October did not predict COVID-19
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, June 4, 2020, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledges $1.6 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to protect the next generation with lifesaving vaccines
• CNBC, June 4, 2020, Bill Gates-backed vaccine alliance raises $8.8 billion from world leaders and businesses
• Gates Foundation Trust SEC Quarterly Holdings Report, Q3 2020
• Fortune, Aug. 24, 2020, Oxford’s COVID vaccine deal with AstraZeneca raises concerns about access and pricing
• USA TODAY, June 12, 2020, Fact check: Bill Gates is not planning to microchip the world through a COVID-19 vaccine
• USA TODAY, March 27, 2020, Fact check: Neither Pirbright Institute nor Bill Gates owns novel coronavirus patent
• USA TODAY, May 14, 2020, Fact check: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates won’t profit from drug remdesivir
• USA TODAY, March 22, 2020, Fact check: Did Bill Gates predict the coronavirus in 2015?
• USA TODAY, May 26, 2020, Fact check: Bill Gates did not craft contact tracing bill
• USA TODAY, July 22, 2020, Fact check: Viral photo shows Obama, Fauci visiting NIH lab in 2014, not a ‘Wuhan lab’ in 2015
• USA TODAY, Aug. 23, 2020, Fact check: ‘Plandemic II’ alleges false conspiracy theory involving CDC, NIH; pandemic not planned

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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

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