Plandemic
Plandemic is a trilogy of conspiracy theory films produced by Mikki Willis, promoting misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. They feature Judy Mikovits, a discredited American researcher and prominent anti-vaccine activist. The first video, Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19, was released on May 4, 2020, under Willis's production company Elevate Films. The second film, Plandemic Indoctornation, which includes more interviewees, was released on August 18 by Brian Rose's distributor of conspiracy theory related films, London Real. Later on June 3, 2023, Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening was released on The Highwire, a website devoted to conspiracy theories run by anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree.
Upon its release, the first video went viral, becoming one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation, its popularity most attributed to online word-of-mouth. It was quickly removed by multiple online platforms, but this failed to stop its proliferation. The video also plausibly contributed to non-compliance with health protocols. Due to social media companies' preparedness for its release, Plandemic: Indoctornation received less attention.
Scientists and health professionals have criticized all the installments of the trilogy for their misleading claims, while Willis's filmmaking style employing various modes of persuasion has been cited as lending to a conspiratorial and brainwashing character of the film. Responding to the outcry directed at the first video, Willis expressed doubt about Mikovits's claims but continued to defend her, with Indoctornation being self-described as a "response video" to debunkers. The Great Awakening was also subject to debunking by fact-checkers.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic was caused by the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, becoming a pandemic in 2020. Billions of people have contracted the disease and millions eventually died from it. As a result of the pandemic declaration, travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and many other precautions were enacted to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while vaccines were quickly developed and underwent phased distribution in most countries. Meanwhile, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the pandemic emerged, concerning the pandemic's scale, the virus' origin, diagnosis, and treatment. Among the popular conspiracy theory is that the virus is a bioweapon to control the population. Some people have claimed to have magical or faith-based cures for the disease.Judy Anne Mikovits is a former American research scientist who is known for her discredited medical claims, such as the claim murine endogenous retroviruses are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome. Even prior to the pandemic, Mikovits was engaged in anti-vaccination activism and the promotion of conspiracy theories, and was accused of scientific misconduct. Prior to the release of Plandemic, Mikovits had expressed support for various COVID-19 conspiracy theories, claiming, for example, that the COVID-19 pandemic is a predictable flu season.
Mikki Willis is a former model and actor who had been making several New Age documentary films and conspiracy videos. At age 25, he founded the New York/Los Angeles Theater of the Arts, where he made several experimental plays, before making his feature debut film, Shoe Shine Boys. He owns a production company, Elevate Films, which operates under the 501 non-profit Elevate Foundation, founded in 2006. At one point, it also operated a namesake film festival. He was also co-director, co-cinematographer, and co-editor of the documentary Neurons to Nirvana, which makes therapeutic claims on psychedelics. Residing in Ojai, California, Willis has a wife and business partner, Nadia Salamanca, as well as two sons. He has a family YouTube channel, Elevate Family, where one of his videos encouraging young boys to be unashamed of their cross-gender interests went viral. In 2023, it was reported they were planning to launch an alternative learning center.
''Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19''
Summary
The first installment of the trilogy, a 26-minute video titled Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19, promotes the conspiracist claim that vaccines are "a money-making enterprise that causes medical harm", exploring themes of the loss of free speech and free choice, also promoting parental autonomy against the pharmaceutical industry. It takes the form of an interview between Willis and Mikovits, who makes unsupported and false statements about SARS-CoV2, the disease it causes, and her own controversial history.Fact-checking responses
Fact-checking website PolitiFact highlighted eight false or misleading statements made in the video:- 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 statement notebooks removed from the Institute were "planted" or that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and its director Anthony Fauci bribed investigators. When asked, both Mikovits and Willis said it was an error to say Mikovits had not been charged; she had meant to say the charges were dropped. Mikovits later said "I've been confused for a decade" and that in the future she would try to be clearer when she talks about the criminal charge; "I'll try to learn to say it differently".
- That the virus was manipulated. This possibility is still being investigated. According to Nature magazine, "Most scientists say SARS-CoV-2 probably has a natural origin, and was transmitted from an animal to humans. However, a lab leak has not been ruled out, and many are calling for a deeper investigation into the hypothesis that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in the Chinese city where the first COVID-19 cases were reported."
- That the SARS-CoV2 virus evolved from SARS-CoV-1 within a decade and that is inconsistent with natural causes. This is incorrect; SARS-CoV-2 is similar but is not directly descended from SARS-CoV, and the viruses have only 79% genetic similarity.
- That hospitals receive $13,000 from Medicare if they "call it COVID-19" when a patient dies. This statement, which had previously been made on The American Spectator and WorldNetDaily, was rated "half true" by PolitiFact and Snopes; payments are made, but the amount is open to dispute and there is no evidence this influences diagnosis. The evidence suggests COVID-19 may be under-diagnosed.
- That hydroxychloroquine is "effective" against coronaviruses. This statement originates in work by Didier Raoult that subsequently received a "statement of concern" from the editors of the scientific journal in which it was published. 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. The NIH said there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against its use to treat COVID-19. As of May 7, 2020, other bodies were running additional controlled trials to investigate hydroxychloroquine's safety and efficacy.
- That flu vaccines increase the chance of contracting COVID-19 by 36%. This statement is false; it misinterprets a disputed article that studied the 2017–2018 influenza season, predating the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement the flu vaccine increases the chance of contracting COVID-19 does not appear in the original article. The article's author Greg G. Wolff said coronavirus cases increased from 5.8% to 7.8% with an odds ratio of 1.36, with 95% confidence interval, and the article highlight said; "Vaccinated personnel did not have significant odds of respiratory illnesses". The article refers to seasonal coronaviruses that cause the common cold, but COVID-19 was added by the website disabledveterans.org.
- That despite the goal of preventing coronaviruses, flu vaccines contain coronaviruses. In reality, there are no vaccines with coronaviruses.
- That "Wearing the mask literally activates your own virus. You're getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expressions." This statement is unsupported by evidence. Masks prevent airborne transmission of the virus, especially during the up-to-14-day asymptomatic period when carriers may not be aware they have the disease. A virus may be deactivated, but cannot add to one's infection level if it leaves the body, even temporarily.
The journal Science also repeats some of the statements made by PolitiFact and fact-checked some of Mikovits's and Willis's other statements:
- That Italy's COVID-19 epidemic is linked to influenza vaccines and the presence of coronaviruses in dogs. There is no relation between these.
- 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". Considering relations between the US and the Wuhan lab stopped, the claim is false.
- That Mikovits is not anti-vaccine. According to Science, she once wore a piece of Vaxxed II merchandise promoting the 2019 sequel to a 2016 film that says MMR vaccines cause autism and that she once sent Science a PowerPoint presentation calling for an "immediate moratorium" for "all vaccines".
- That the Department of Health and Human Services "colluded and destroyed" Mikovits's reputation, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation kept this secret but did nothing to help her. Science said, "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", which the article does not say.
- That Mikovits's Ph.D. thesis Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes "revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS"; the thesis "had no discernible impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS".