Fact check: World leaders are not encouraging a second wave of coronavirus to push a global vaccination strategy, nor an IMF-backed programme to steal everything you own

Articles shared on social media have falsely claimed world leaders are planning to use the economic downturn caused by the new coronavirus to push for a global vaccination strategy, and to turn countries into totalitarian states.

The article, which was posted to an Australian blog site that describes itself as a “non-mainstream media independent of any government control”, claims leaders in Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States are pushing for another wave of coronavirus infections to introduce global vaccinations, and to steal assets from citizens (bit.ly/3kd64TR). It backs up this claim by quoting from a media aggregator and blog called The Canadian Report (here), which says it has obtained a leaked email from a member of Canada’s ruling party about a strategy against international economic collapse.

According to the alleged email, which is said to have been sent by an unnamed member of the Liberal Party of Canada, members of a strategic planning committee have been told of a scheme that involves the International Monetary Fund (IMF) giving cash to Canada to eliminate debt. In response, Canadian citizens would agree to stipulations to guarantee unrestricted travel and living arrangements. This includes agreeing to a vaccination for COVID-19 and a secondary disease called COVID-21, while also giving up ownership of their property and assets forever.

The alleged email reads: “What we were told was that in order to offset what was essentially an economic collapse on a international scale, that the federal government was going to offer Canadians a total debt relief. This is how it works: the federal government will offer to eliminate all personal debts (mortgages, loans, credit cards, etc) which all funding will be provided to Canada by the IMF under what will become known as the World Debt Reset program. In exchange for acceptance of this total debt forgiveness the individual would forfeit ownership of any and all property and assets forever. The individual would also have to agree to partake in the COVID-19 and COVID-21 vaccination schedule, which would provide the individual with unrestricted travel and unrestricted living even under a full lock down (through the use of photo identification referred to as Canada’s HealthPass).” According to the message, this policy would not be restricted to Canada, but “all nations will have similar roadmaps and agendas”.

There are several other claims made in the post that are outside the scope of this check.

This alleged email is not authentic and is used to bolster a claim that has no basis in fact.

According to the sender of the alleged email posted to Canadian Report, they are a member of the “Strategic Planning Committee” which is “steered” by the prime minister’s office (PMO). A spokesperson from the PMO’s office told Reuters that such a committee did not exist (here) .

Secondly, the reference to the “World Debt Reset program” is misleading. The World Economic Forum pitched the idea of a “great reset” on capitalism in June after noting the pandemic was increasing inequality (here). It encourages three components, including asking governments to improve fiscal policy, implement overdue reforms (such as on wealth taxes), and pushing for the efforts that have boosted health sectors this year to be replicated across other sectors to bring about an industrial revolution.

Similarly, the IMF has published its vision of a “Global Economic Reset,” which promotes the idea of an “inclusive recovery” from the pandemic. This includes encouragement of public investments into healthcare to protect the most vulnerable, time limited debt service suspension for the world’s poorest countries (here), and tax reforms (here) .

Neither of these mention plans to donate money to provide any single nation with “total debt relief,” nor a strategy to push people into agreeing to a global vaccination plan for COVID-19 and COVID-21. The latter only exists as the name of a low-budget movie (here) .

Costas Christou, the IMF mission chief for Canada, later confirmed to Reuters that the claims were irrelevant to the organisation’s advice. He said: “The information shared in this report neither is related to nor is part of the IMF’s policy advice or finance initiatives to its membership.”

In the article written for Cairns News, no evidence is offered to support that claim that governments are pushing for a second wave of COVID-19. Evidence suggests the complete opposite with ongoing restrictions implemented to keep the virus at bay (here, here, here, here, here) .

VERDICT

False. The alleged leaked email used to make the claim that governments are using a second wave of COVID-19 to push for global vaccinations and a new economy is not authentic. The “great reset” proposed by the WEF and IMF does not include proposals for a vaccination strategy, nor “total debt relief” in return for citizen’s assets.

Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Reuters can be found here ***