Plandemic

Plandemic is a pair of 2020 conspiracy theory videos produced by Mikki Willis which promote misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. They feature Judy Mikovits, a discredited former researcher who has been described as an anti-vaccine activist despite her denial. Willis produced the video with a low budget, and released it under the name of his production company, Elevate Films. Other people are featured in the second video, Plandemic: Indoctornation, which was released 3 months after the first video. Other than COVID-19 subjects, it also talks about viruses in general, as well as Mikovits herself.

Mikki Willis (left) next to conspiracist[1] Rashid Buttar (right), shooting for the second video.[2]

The first video went viral, becoming one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation. It was soon removed by multiple platforms, although the responses fail to be successful. However, due to social media preparation, Indoctornation did not get as much attention. The videos were criticized by scientists and health professionals for its misleading claims; its professional filmmaking style is noted to be conspiratorial and brainwashing. Indoctornation was especially received poorly for its narrative quality. The Sinclair Broadcast Group interviewed Mikovits regarding the videos, but the interview did not air.

Background
Main articles: COVID-19 pandemic, Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and List of unproven methods against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The outbreak was declared an international health emergency in January 2020[3] and a pandemic in March 11.[4] It has caused tens of millions to contract the disease. As a result, travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and many other precautions have been taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, whilst many vaccines have been distributed.

As with many medical topics, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the pandemic emerged, spread by both ordinary citizens and politicians. Such misinformation focuses on the scale of the pandemic, as well as the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment of the disease. Misinformation includes claims the virus is either a bioweapon control the population,[5] a form of espionage,[6] or an effect of 5G networks.[7] Some people have claimed magic or faith-based cures to the disease.

The word plandemic, a portmanteau of "plan" + "pandemic",[lower-greek 1] is not a new term. It had been used in 2006 by The Sydney Morning Herald.[9]

Judy Anne Mikovits (born 1957 or 1958) is a former American research scientist who is known for her discredited medical claims, such as that murine endogenous retroviruses are linked to chronic fatigue syndrome.[10] She has been engaged in anti-vaccination activism, promoted conspiracy theories,[11] and been accused of scientific misconduct.[12] Prior to Plandemic, Mikovits has shown agreements in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, believing that the pandemic is merely a predictable flu season.[13]

First video
The logo used for the first video

Summary

The first video, titled Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19,[14] promotes the conspiracist claim that vaccines are "a money-making enterprise that causes medical harm."[15] It takes the form of an interview between the producer, Mikki Willis, and Mikovits, in which Mikovits makes numerous unsupported or false claims around coronavirus, and her own controversial history.[14]

Fact-checker PolitiFact highlighted eight false or misleading claims made in the video, including:[14]

  • 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 claim that notebooks removed from the Institute were "planted" or that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and its director Anthony Fauci bribed investigators.[14] When asked, both Mikovits and Willis admitted that it was an error to say she had not been charged, and she had meant to say that the charges were dropped, Mikovits saying that "I've been confused for a decade" and that in future she would try to be more clear when she talks about the criminal charge ("I'll try to learn to say it differently.").[16]
  • That the virus was manipulated. An article in Nature analyses the likely origins and finds that "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus".[17]
  • That the virus occurred from SARS-1 within a decade, and this is inconsistent with natural causes. This is incorrect: SARS-CoV-2 is similar but not directly descended from SARS-CoV (SARS-1), with only 79% genetic similarity.[18]
  • That hospitals receive $13,000 from Medicare if they "call it COVID-19" when a patient dies. This claim, which had previously been made on The American Spectator and WorldNetDaily,[19] was rated "half true" by PolitiFact[20] and Snopes:[21] payments are made, but the amount is open to dispute, and there is no evidence that this influences diagnosis, and the evidence suggests that COVID-19 is, possibly, under-diagnosed.[22]
  • That hydroxychloroquine is "effective against these families of viruses". This claim originates with work by Didier Raoult, which has subsequently received a "statement of concern" from the editors of the journal in which it was published.[23] 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.[24] The NIH says that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against this use.[25] As of May 7, 2020, other bodies were running additional controlled trials to investigate hydroxychloroquine's safety and efficacy.[14]:1
  • That flu vaccines increase the chance of contracting COVID-19 by 36%. This claim is false:[26] it misinterprets a disputed article that studied the 2017—2018 influenza season, predating the COVID-19 pandemic. The claim that the flu vaccine increases the chance of contracting COVID-19 does not appear in the original article at all. The author (Greg G. Wolff) wrote that coronavirus cases increased from 5.8% (non-vaccinated) to 7.8% (vaccinated) with an odds ratio of 1.36, with (1.14, 1.63) 95% confidence interval, and the article highlight said: "Vaccinated personnel did not have significant odds of respiratory illnesses".[27] The article was referring to seasonal coronaviruses (common cold), but COVID-19 was added by the website disabledveterans.org.[26]
Plandemic basis is that the pandemic is scripted, that safety precautions don't work, and that the virus is handcrafted.
  • That despite the goal of preventing coronaviruses, flu vaccines themselves contain coronaviruses. In reality, there are no vaccines with coronaviruses.[28]
  • That "Wearing the mask literally activates your own virus. You're getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expressions." This claim is unsupported by evidence. Masks prevent airborne transmission of the virus, especially during the asymptomatic period (up to 14 days), when carriers may not even be aware they have the disease;[29] a virus may be de-activated, but cannot add to one's infection level if it leaves the body even temporarily.[30]

Science also repeats some of the points given by PolitiFact, and fact-checked some other claims too, where Mikovits and Willis claimed:[31]

  • That Italy's COVID-19 epidemic has links with influenza vaccines and the presence of coronaviruses in dogs. There is no relation whatsoever between the three.
  • 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." Science says that considering the relations between the US and the Wuhan lab has stopped, the claim is certainly false.
  • That Mikovits is not anti-vaccine. Science argued otherwise, saying that she once wore a Vaxxed II merchandise, a sequel to a film promoting the claim that MMR vaccines cause autism, as well as that she once sent a PowerPoint presentation to them calling for an "immediate moratorium" for "all vaccines."
  • That the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "colluded and destroyed" Mikovits' reputation, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did nothing but secreting it. Science responded that "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", when the article does not reveal anything of the sort.
  • That Mikovits's Ph.D. thesis Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes "revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS", when the thesis "had no discernible impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS."

Mikovits also alludes to a number of conspiracy theories that claim Bill Gates is implicated in causing the pandemic in order to profit from an eventual vaccine,[15] and makes false and unsupported claims that beaches should remain open, as "healing microbes in the saltwater" and "sequences" in the sand can "protect against the coronavirus".[32] The video claims that the numbers of COVID-19 deaths are purposely being misreported in an effort to control people.[33]

Willis' previous credits include numerous conspiracy theorist videos, as well as cinematography on Neurons to Nirvana, a film that makes therapeutic claims about psychedelics.[14] External videos were also included in the video, such as a video of a chiropractor who claimed that tonic water can treat or even prevent COVID-19, and a video of a press conference among doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi in Bakersfield, California alleging that the COVID-19 pandemic was overhyped. These external videos were also disputed beforehand.[34]

Production
Logo of Elevate Films, the California-based production company for the first video, which is owned by Willis himself. It operates under the non-profit Elevate Foundation, founded in 2006.[35]

The idea of producing Plandemic was said to be a struggle, according to Willis. At that time, he was aware that getting involved in such controversial topics will risk his reputation, and that he must oath to be ready in heated discussions. "And of course there’s been tons of it. I’ve just been navigating all of that", he said. He was further ready to take the risk, when he remembered that his mother and brother died from AIDS and cancer, respectively, when he was in his 20s, showing more skepticism to the medical industry.[35]

Willis met Mikovits for the first time in 2019, via mutual friends. Willis, a native of Ojai, California, claimed via the Ojai Valley News that "Because of [Mikovits'] direct connection with [those] involved with the pandemic, [...] I reached out to her for advice. We met, had a meeting, and what she revealed to me I knew the world needed to know." He also said that shooting took a day, and editing took two weeks. He claimed that he halted continuation in editing a film he made in 2019, that "Plandemic was the priority." Initially, he is also unsure whether to make a continuation or not.[2] With a cinematographer and researcher paid to join in the project, Willis calculated the budget at less tham US$2,000.[35]

Willis, a low-budget filmmaker who was 52 years old at the time of release, teamed up with his wife Nadia Salamanca (with whom he has two sons) on marketing the video. The branding of it was intentionally conspiratorial, in order to gain attention wherein in modern society is perceived to be hard to gain. The title, Plandemic, was the majority opinion in a Facebook poll conducted by Willis.[35]

Release

The video was released on May 4, 2020.[36] It spread virally on social media, garnering millions of views,[15] making it one of the most widespread pieces of COVID-19 misinformation. "Judy Mikovits" became a trending search on Google for two days.[37] Before being removed, one of the videos featuring the work reached 1 million views.[38] However, despite getting removed, views of the video on the original site continued to increase.[39] The legacy of the video continues long after its release: in February 2021, The Washington Post reported that an anti-mask Facebook page called Shop Mask Free Los Angeles used Plandemic as a citation to their claims. By this time, the Post reported that some of the links have rot.[40]

A YouTube spokesperson said that the platform will be removing videos supporting the claims of Plandemic without sufficient evidence, highlighting that it is "[s]uggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm". Vimeo's Trust & Safety team has removed the video for violating their policies on misinformation. Twitter said that hashtags like #PlagueofCorruption and #PlandemicMovie have been blacklisted, however noted that not all of Mikovits' Twitter attempts to spread propaganda necessarily violated their policies. It was removed from Facebook; by that time it reached 1.8 million views, 17,000 comments, and "nearly" 150,000 shares.[41] On TikTok, it continued to find popularity via clips excerpted from the full video, part of which were removed by the platform.[42]

It was stated to be part of an upcoming "documentary feature film",[14] later known as Plandemic: Indoctornation (see its respective section).

Reception
The atmosphere, cinematography, and score of Plandemic are said to be what makes the claims stated sound convincing. Pictured is a cutaway during the video's opening scene.

Scientists, medical doctors, and public health experts condemned the film for promoting misinformation and "a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories", as written by NBC News.[37] Governmental organizations, including the Indonesian COVID-19 Task Force, also stamped the film a hoax, describing the video as a brainwashing and a red herring to divert the public's attention from real issues.[43] Specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring, writing for BBC News, as well as disinformation researcher Erin Gallagher, interviewed by The Guardian, worries that its professionally-crafted atmosphere, cinematography, and ominously dramatic score is what makes the stated claims sound true. "That makes them as dangerous - if not more so - than advice with a mix of truth and misleading medical myths".[44][45] Reached out by the Los Angeles Times, Shiva Rea, the board of director of the Elevate Foundation, stated that she finds Plandemic to be "disturbing."[35]

Science journalist Tara Haelle described the video as propaganda and posited that the video "has been extremely successful at promoting misinformation for three reasons":[46]

  1. It "taps into people's uncertainty, anxiety and need for answers";
  2. It "is packaged very professionally and uses common conventions people already associate with factual documentaries"; and
  3. It effectively exploits various methods of persuasion, including the use of a seemingly trustworthy and sympathetic narrator, appeals to emotion, the Gish gallop, and "sciencey" images.

Zarine Kharazian, the assistant editor of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, described the response to the removal of the video from Facebook and YouTube as a "censorship backfire", invoking the Streisand effect.[47]

Writing for the Deseret News, Amy Iverson expressed empathy towards Mikovits, Willis, and the many who spreads misinformation about the pandemic: "I understand many of us are confused and feel helpless and hopeless at times these days. We want someone to blame. But we cannot turn to outrageous, unchecked claims from a few loud voices to ease our concerns. And we definitely should not spread their unsubstantiated claims."[34]

Mikki Willis' response

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Willis debunked the popular belief that he is an anti-vaccine; he said that he is merely trying to start a conversation about science. He also said that he is open-minded about such topics. "I have a profound love and respect of doctors despite how many doctors are mad at me now," he elaborated. He said that he is also skeptical of the many claims Mikovits throws out in the video: "We’re working very hard right now to validate the majority of the claims that were made." He stated that he is willing to be involved in civil discussions with doctors on all sides of the story.[35]

ProPublica health care reporter and investigative journalist Marshall Allen contacted Willis; Willis says that Plandemic "is not a piece that’s intended to be perfectly balanced." When asked whether the video would be suitable to be called propaganda, which is "information [...] of a biased or misleading nature" as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, he opines that although he thinks there's no misinformation in the video, the definition fits. He also thinks that by the definition, "100% of news reporting [related to Plandemic] is propaganda."[16]

The Center for Inquiry's (CFI) Benjamin Radford and Paul Offit gave Willis eight questions concerning the accuracy of the claims made in the video, either asking for evidences, clarification, or a general question such as "considering that bacteria don’t kill viruses, how would "healing microbes" reduce or treat coronavirus infection?" While Willis agreed to answer all of the questions, they have not received some kind of reply from him. Radford reacted on the CFI's website: "If the claims made [...] in Plandemic are [factual], you’d think they would be eager to [prove it]. Where are their responses? Why are they suddenly so quiet? Why are they afraid to answer questions? What do they have to hide?"[48]

Plandemic: Indoctornation
Plandemic: Indoctornation's logo

Summary

The 84-minute sequel, titled Plandemic: Indoctornation (the word "Doctor" being highlighted in the logo as an altering of the word indoctrination), was released on August 18, 2020.[49] Willis says that the film is a "response video to all the debunkers", interviewing 7,000 doctors as well as attorneys, saying that his goal is to "reform our medical systems such that they’re not under the stranglehold of Big Pharma."[2]

The argumentation presented in the video aims to demonstrate the existence of an worldwide conspiracy seeking to control the entire human population through fear and making money, the COVID-19 pandemic being a key moment in a plan that spans decades. It also claims that sand can cure COVID-19. Willis points to actors as various as Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Google and the fact-checking agencies it employs, climate change, John Oliver, the Chinese government, and Bill Gates who somehow coordinate with each other.[50]

The film's thesis is supported by a number of claims that have been discredited. Fighting against the claims in Indoctornation of the virus being man-made, experts are satisfied that COVID-19 has not been engineered in a laboratory and that Event 201, a 2019 disaster response exercise, could not have been a plan to release an actual virus into the population. Despite on what it alleged, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation still funds projects in India and cooperates with the Indian government on several initiatives with no harm done; it does not have technology allowing it to covertly implant an invisible proof of vaccination.[49] According to PolitiFact, who categorized the film as a pseudo-documentary, a claim said by David E. Martin (founding CEO of intellectual property company M∙CAM Inc.) suggests that the patent applied by the CDC during the 2003 SARS outbreak is meant to "[control] the proprietary rights to the disease, to the virus, and to its detection and all of the measurement of it", when it merely covers "the genetic material of and ways to detect the human coronavirus."[51]

Production and release

In the immediate aftermath of the release of Plandemic, Willis was contacted by an independent producer said to have worked on projects with HBO, Netflix, and Amazon, asking if he shows interest in affiliating with him on making a feature-length version. The enterprises, however, showed no interest.[35] Despite that, the film started production anyway.

The film was released by an online distributor called London Real on the website Digital Freedom Platform, which has promoted several discredited theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. Because it was promoted in advance, social media platforms were able to prepare ahead of the release, whereas they usually scramble to react to misinformation already circulating on their networks.[49] As part of their policy to counter disinformation about the pandemic, Facebook, Twitter and others took steps to limit the spread of the film as soon as it was posted, affixing warnings to links users shared. YouTube removed from its service multiple copies of the film, as well as sixteen clips presenting specific sections.[50] Facebook warned users when clicking the original film's link, although no steps of blocking were taken. TikTok and Instagram blacklisted the link.[52]

London Real claimed it was seen 1.2 million times by the end of the first day, but the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab calls it "a total flop", with much lower levels of social media engagement than the shorter version.[50] Because social media were forewarned during the viral season of the first video, the distribution of Plandemic: Indoctornation was more limited.[49] The Daily Dot says that the only platform where it succeeded was Facebook with 4,000 views, linking to the film's link on BitChute, with 40,000 views.[52]

Reception

Jane Lytvynenko at BuzzFeed News gave it "0 stars", saying that while the first video presents a protagonist (Mikovits) and a fairly clear narrative, Plandemic: Indoctornation lacks that focus. The video jumps from one topic to the next without establishing clearly how the various pieces of information presented relate to each other, the result being "bloated, confused, and filled with nonsense". Mikovits appears only to respond to criticism about elements of the first video, according to Lytvynenko. She also analogized that "As a piece of journalism, it is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. As a piece of entertainment, it is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom", and "Just like the Emperor returning in The Rise of Skywalker, Plandemic: Indoctornation leans on old, familiar characters instead of inventing new ones." Lytvynenko said that the producers' initial claim of the first film being a trailer for a feature film was seemingly false: while the second one picks up on some of the same themes and also features Mikovits, it is noted the most of the "trailer" isn't used in the feature-length film.[50] Mike Rothschild of The Daily Dot opined it is "not as good" as the first video.[52]

Sinclair Broadcasting Group
Mikovits talking in the episode, screenshot by The New York Times[53]

In July 2020, Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBG) scheduled to air an interview with Judy Mikovits and her lawyer Larry Klayman,[54] conducted by Eric Bolling on his America This Week show. During the interview, Mikovits put forth a baseless claim that Fauci created COVID-19 and sent it to China. Bolling did not argue against Mikovits' allegation or fact-check it on-air, although he claimed that he had indeed argued against Mikovits by calling her allegation "hefty".[55] SBG distributed the interview to its local stations, and also released the interview online, with an on-screen graphic of "Did Dr. Fauci create COVID-19?"[56] After media reports regarding the interview emerged, SBG received substantial criticism, resulting in Sinclair stating that they would delay the television release of the interview by around a week.[57] They later decided to drop the segment entirely.[58]

See also

Similar films

Explanatory notes
  1. An alternative mixture to this would be "plan" + "demic," which was said at the second video. "Demic," according to Collins Dictionary which was identified at the second film Plandemic: Indoctornation, is "characteristic of pertaining to a people or population."[8]

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