# "Plandemic" (conspiracy theory video taken down from You Tube) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [May 6, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301 "2020-05-06T22:39:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/1 "2020-05-06T22:39:47Z")
This came up on Facebook earlier, and was already gone from YT by the time I clicked on the link. In short, it’s a interview with a scientist who has been discredited for her unorthodox views on, among other things, HIV and and vaccines, and that this is all just a money-making conspiracy. She mentions being arrested; yes, she was - for stealing from a previous employer! The people who made this video have also put out conspiratorial videos about 5G, among other things. > **[r/Documentaries - Plandemic Documentary The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid 19 (2020)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/ges1b5/plandemic_documentary_the_hidden_agenda_behind/)** > > 0 votes and 153 comments so far on Reddit I’m posting it here because this stuff is floating around and people are believing it. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/2 "2020-05-07T02:28:32Z")
I didn’t watch the video but connected the name to this reply I saw shared on Facebook. Kat Montgomery 5 hrs _The following statements represent my personal informed views and not those of any institution_ First, background: I’m a physician (specifically a board-certified pathologist, which includes microbiology and laboratory medicine) with a master’s degree in epidemiology. In the last day or two, several friends have shared or posted about a video “documentary” called “Plandemic”. The film depicts now-discredited former researcher Judy Mikovits who shares a plausible-sounding narrative about the current pandemic. The problem here is that nearly all of her scientific statements are demonstrably false. If you have more to add to this list, or credible data to the contrary, please start a discussion. I suspect there are many more false claims in this video, but these are just the ones that stuck out to me as a physician with epidemiology training. - She states “There is no vaccine for any RNA virus." Incorrect: Polio, hepatitis A, measles, to name a few. - Her retracted paper was actually not about vaccines at all, even though she insinuates that it was. - She states that Ebola could not infect humans until it was engineered to do so in the laboratory. This is false. - Likewise, many other zoonotic viruses have been shown to gain mutations that allow them to infect humans. This would not be some kind of new, crazy idea. We actually predicted it years ago: we just didn’t know exactly which virus or when it would occur. - She states that the US was working with Wuhan to study coronaviruses years ago, like it’s a “gotcha” moment: yes, of course we were doing this – Wuhan is a coronavirus hotspot and it makes sense to study this family of viruses where it naturally occurs. - She states that COPD lungs are identical to COVID-19 lungs. As a pathologist, this is ludicrous – any practicing physician would be able to tell COPD from COVID-19, both clinically and histologically. - The statement taken out of context from the CDC death certificate recommendation reads in full “In cases where a definitive diagnosis of COVID-19 cannot be made, but is suspected or likely (the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate as “probable” or “presumed”. In these instances, certifiers should use their best judgment in determining if a COVID-19 diagnosis was likely. Testing for COVID-19 should be conducted whenever possible.”. My physician colleagues are not being pressured to put COVID-19 on death certificates when it should not be there. - The idea that physicians are incorrectly diagnosing COVID-19 due to financial incentive is also ridiculous. Medicare sometimes bundles payments for some conditions (i.e. if you have a heart attack, medicare may pay XX for your treatment) – it’s possible the hospital could get paid $13,000 for your COVID-19 admission, but do you know what that’s based on? The fact that the average cost of a hospital admission for a respiratory condition is $13,297. - She states that hydroxychloroquine has been “extensively studied in this family of viruses” – in fact, it has not been studied well in coronaviruses. It HAS been studied in malaria, which is not a virus. And yes, it is considered an essential medicine for the treatment of malaria. Not for coronaviruses. - Furthermore, the data on hydroxychloroquine are much weaker than they originally appeared: the small study that was highly publicized was not a randomized controlled trial, and the only patients who died were those who received hydroxychloroquine (and these were EXCLUDED FROM ANALYSIS!). This is terrible science. Even so, we want to investigate all possible treatments, so controlled trials are being conducted on hydroxychloroquine right now. - She insinuates that there is a hydroxychloroquine shortage as a result of reduced production. In fact, there is a shortage because people who take this medication regularly are stockpiling it and because physicians are using it for COVID19 patients because they have nothing else to try. - “All flu vaccines contain coronaviruses”. Nope, absolutely false. - The ideas that sheltering in place somehow harms your immune system or that you may reactivate a virus in yourself by wearing a mask have been thoroughly debunked in other posts and I won’t get into the details here. Both national societies of emergency medicine have condemned the statements of these doctors, one of whom is not board-certified. - Lastly, private companies removing false information from their platforms does not represent repression, censorship, or promotion of propaganda. It’s helping to promote the spread of sound scientific information. If you think lies should be permitted to circulate freely alongside the truth with the intention of reaching people who won’t be able to tell the difference, you are part of the problem. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/3 "2020-05-07T02:42:32Z")
Thanks for the response! One of the people who replied and said she believed this link also told me about this person. Yes, the story’s fishy, but I wasn’t there either. I looked for references to him here and didn’t find any. I will add that these doubting stories were almost all from blogs and RWNJ websites. > **[Death of HHS official Daniel Best is ruled a suicide](https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2018/11/death_of_hhs_official_daniel_b.html)** > > In announcing his death, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the 49-year-old former CVSHealth and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals executive agreed to work at HHS "out of a desire to serve the American people by making health care more affordable." ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/4 "2020-05-07T02:44:19Z")
p.s. I can assure everyone that nobody I know of is profiting massively off this. Among other things, most of the people who are critically ill and/or dying are on Medicare, and hospitals lose money on Medicare patients. They pay about 80% of the hospital’s own cost for treating these patients, and that’s one reason why so many people buy “Medigap” plans. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/5 "2020-05-08T00:26:49Z")
A voice of reason makes a response video. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KHeg9DDrjMs/maxresdefault.jpg "A Doctor Reacts To “Plandemic"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHeg9DDrjMs) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/6 "2020-05-08T00:48:44Z")
> **[Dr. Mikovits and that Youtube plandemic video debunked](https://www.lancastercourier.com/2020/05/07/dr-mikovits-and-that-youtube-plandemic-video-debunked/?fbclid=IwAR0hCY7YHRgt3AYzCTwdg7UiPFvOjFdKqb9Pr00PDaNHTuV1spyXTa7Qlhc)** > > Dr. Mikovits cannot even be honest or discerning in relaying the truth about her legal issues, so I do not know why anyone would take any testimony by this person about anything with anything other than a large grain of salt and that is the nicest... ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plandemic-conspiracy-theory-video-taken-down-from-you-tube/853301/7 "2020-05-08T04:23:19Z")
Politifact’s take on it: Discredited ítems in italics to differenciate: > **[8 things ‘Plandemic’ gets wrong about the coronavirus](https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/08/fact-checking-plandemic-documentary-full-false-con/)** > > If you’ve been on social media in the past two days, there’s a good chance you’ve seen someone share "Plandemic: The Hid … > [@](#): > > "_Hydroxychloroquine is ‘effective against these families of viruses’ "_ > > This is unproven. There is no cure or vaccine for SARS or the novel coronavirus. > > While some studies have found that hydroxychloroquine could mitigate some of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, other research has found no such effect. With more than 50 studies in the works, as well as an NIH clinical trial, it’s too soon to say whether the drug is a viable treatment for the coronavirus. (The most recent study, a large-scale study of nearly 1,400 New York-area patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, found that patients fared no better by taking hydroxychloroquine.) > > Fauci tempered expectations for hydroxychloroquine during a March press conference after Trump touted the drug. And several states have restricted access to it given how little scientists know about how it affects the coronavirus. > > - > > “‘The flu vaccines increase the odds by 36% of getting COVID-19’”\* > > This is inaccurate. Other fact-checkers have debunked similar claims. > > In “Plandemic,” Mikovits points to a study published in January in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine. The study found that, among personnel in the U.S. Defense Department between 2017 and 2018, the odds of getting coronaviruses were greater for vaccinated officials than unvaccinated officials. > > But that doesn’t support Mikovits’ claim. > > First of all, the study was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. And scientists have noted flaws in its experimental design; for example, the number of vaccinated subjects was more than twice as large as the number of unvaccinated subjects. > > Finally, nowhere in the study do the authors say flu vaccines increased subjects’ odds of getting a coronavirus by 36%. That bogus claim was added to the study in a March 11 story from [DisabledVeterans.org](http://DisabledVeterans.org). > _“‘If you’ve ever had a flu vaccine, you were injected with coronaviruses’”_ > > This is inaccurate. Similar claims have also been debunked by other fact-checkers. > > According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most flu vaccines in the United States protect against four different kinds of viruses: influenza A (H1N1), influenza A (H3N2), and two influenza B viruses. Others protect against three kinds of flu viruses. > > There are no coronaviruses in the flu shot. And there are no human coronavirus vaccines. > \*‘Wearing the mask literally activates your own virus. You’re getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expressions.’ > \* > There is no evidence to support this. We’re not sure what a “coronavirus expression” even is. > > The CDC advises anyone who goes out in public to wear a mask. Since it can take up to 14 days for an infected person to exhibit symptoms, the goal is to prevent unwittingly spreading the coronavirus through coughs and sneezes. > > Wearing a face mask prevents the spread of the coronavirus — it does not make people more susceptible to it. > > “There is nothing about wearing a mask that would have any biologically relevant impact on viral activity,” said Richard Peltier, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, in an email. “Wearing a mask simply catches the droplets before they reach our mouth or nose. It isn’t rocket science, and Dr. Mikovits should know that.” > Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter More in the link.