Social media users share a video in which an individual makes numerous false statements about the new coronavirus pandemic.
The clip was uploaded here on Facebook and contains an individual who expresses numerous allegations and opinions. This article deals only with the primary claims.
“Scientists could not have predicted the pandemic if it had not been planned”
The man in the video delivers a monologue in which he claims that scientists made predictions’ until 2017 that there would be this pandemic ‘, adding’ there is no way anyone could have predicted unless they have a knowledge of within a release of some kind of pathogenic pandemic (incoherent) pathogen. ”(1:50)
This is false: scientists have warned of a pandemic because modern life has probably made a global outbreak. For example, the Obama administration experienced the 2009 swine flu pandemic (here), the Zika virus epidemic 2015-16 (here) and the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa (here).
In 2017, CNN listed seven factors that increased the likelihood of a global pandemic, including urbanization, climate change, and global travel (here). American infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates have also warned of a deadly outbreak (here and here).
Reuters reported last year that new research showed: “Pandemics will emerge more frequently, spread faster, kill more food and kill more people than COVID-19 without daring action to stop habitat destruction that helps viruses kill wildlife to jump to man ”(here).
“The second wave is caused by masks, 5G and vaccines”
The speaker goes on to make false statements, saying: ‘They will have three different causes of sick people attributable to the second wave of COVID-19.’ (3:52)
The first causal factor, according to the speaker, is masks: “Since people are allowed to return to society, their immune systems will already be suppressed due to wearing the mask, which will increase cortisol levels … we need oxygen through ‘ a mask sucks … which makes an individual more susceptible to any kind of pathogen. ‘(2:40)
There is no evidence to substantiate this. Misinformation about masks spread widely during the first wave of the pandemic and Reuters found no expert evidence to support the claim that wearing face masks weakens the immune system (here).
Virologist Angela Rasmussen, a research scientist at Columbia University, told PolitiFact in June 2020: ‘There is no decrease in oxygen or increased carbon dioxide due to normal breathing during a mask, and no evidence that masks have any effect on the immune system or immune function. “(here)
Fact checkers at USA Today have dropped a similar claim from May 2020 (here) and Reuters has since identified numerous false allegations about face masks here, here and here.
The British government says: “Wearing a face mask can reduce the spread of coronavirus drops in certain circumstances and help protect others.” (here)
The speaker in the video then claims: “There is a new technology called 5G. The implication of the technology is not fully understood, but more than 2000 studies have been done showing how the technology suppresses the immune system. “(3:26)
The World Health Organization says no research has linked exposure to wireless technology with negative health consequences (here). Reuters has previously written about misleading attempts to connect COVID-19 and 5G networks here and there.
To complete his theory, the man says, “The third component is that people want to run the vaccine, but they will get sick if they get their vaccinations.” (3:45)
This is false. The Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, which are available in the UK, have undergone clinical trials (here) to prove their safety and efficacy. During the trials, half of the volunteers received the vaccine and half a placebo dummy treatment (here). Pfizer’s clinical trials with more than 40,000 people reported that the vaccine could prevent 95% of COVID-19 cases, and AstraZeneca’s tests with more than 23,000 people showed that the vaccine was 70.4% effective (here).
Reuters has dismissed false allegations about COVID-19 vaccine safety here and there.
VERDICT
Untrue. The fact that scientists have warned of a pandemic does not mean that the COVID-19 outbreak was planned, and that the second wave was not caused by masks, 5Gs or vaccines. Scientists were concerned about the spread of the new coronavirus in winter because humans spend more time together in closed spaces (here), and this has been exacerbated by problems with contact detection (here) and the development of new strains (here).
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.