Fact Check: Klaus Schwab NOT Hospitalized After Vaccine Reaction, Will Speak At Davos Event
Was Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), hospitalized after a bad reaction to a vaccine and does that mean he will not be speaking at the World Economic Forum event in Davos, Switzerland, in mid-January 2023? No, that’s not true: The site putting out the story has a disclaimer that says it publishes “satirical stories about issues that affect conservatives.” According to the WEF website, Schwab is scheduled to speak at the opening press conference on January 17, 2023.
When contacted by email the WEF confirmed to Lead Stories that:
Professor Klaus Schwab is in excellent health and will open tomorrow our Annual Meeting in Davos.
The false claim appeared in an article published by the Vancouver Times on January 15, 2023, titled “Klaus Schwab hospitalized after bad reaction to Covid jab” (archived here) which opened:
Founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Klaus Schwab has been hospitalized after suffering a severe and unexpected reaction to the Pfizer Covid vaccine. As a result, he will not speaking at this year’s event.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Klaus Schwab hospitalized after bad reaction to Covid jab
Founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Klaus Schwab has been hospitalized after suffering a severe and unexpected reaction to the Pfizer Covid vaccine. As a result, he will not speaking at this year’s event. The WEF’s annual meeting is happening between Jan. 16 – 20 and will be held in its usual location of […]
The Vancouver Times is a website that has published several made-up stories in the past, claiming on its “About” page (archived here) to be a satirical publication (despite the complete lack of discernible humor):
About Us
Vancouver Times is the most trusted source for satire on the West Coast. We write satirical stories about issues that affect conservatives.
The site contains a mix of articles copied from other sites and made-up stories, often hoaxes about the death or arrest of people who were recently in the news. The made-up stories usually contain embedded tweets or links to articles from real news organizations to appear more credible. Another common theme of the made-up stories is that many of them claim there is some sort of media blackout in effect to explain the fact that the site is the only outlet reporting certain details.
The site claims its main author is named “Jason Pires,” the same name as an existing Canadian TV journalist. That Jason Pires has denied (archived here) being involved with the site:
It has come to my attention that someone is using my name to market a startup ‘news’ site. I am in no way affiliated with this site and am working to have my name removed from this site.
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Lead Stories can be found here.
