A good friend sent me this after I posted the article linking “Plandemic”.  I don’t pretend to know what the truth is here.  I think there is sufficient doubt with regard to Dr. Anthony Fauci to require him to resign from this “task force”.  I tend to believe some of the charges against him because his own behavior has not exactly manifested integrity.  He has conflicts of interest all over the map.  He has invested in the Wuhan lab, he is involved with vaccine purveyors.  He has nothing to recommend him.    With regard to Mikovits, she deserves to be heard.  If Fauci wants to debate her or present his own side of things I want to hear him as well.  The point is we do not censor people in America.  We leave that to China, maybe Russia.  Here we are free to express ourselves.  Period.  There is no excuse in taking people’s posts down just because we don’t agree or don’t believe them.  

Earlier in her career, Mikovits published what the video calls a “blockbuster” article claiming that chronic fatigue syndrome is caused by a virus. It later turned out that other labs could not replicate her results, and her own lab could not replicate them either. The article was retracted. But Mikovits went on to argue that viruses cause a variety of chronic diseases, including autism, and that they can be found in vaccines. There is no evidence for her claims.  [The Mayo Clinic has said that some chronic diseases are caused by viruses.  One example would be the Epstein-Barr Syndrome.  The cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is “unknown”; however, the Mayo Clinic says that a virus could be one cause.  Perhaps the Mayo Clinic has information beyond that available to Ms Skwarecki.  Dr. Mikovits is not alone in her belief that autism is possibly caused by vaccines.  There is much anecdotal testimony to indicate a relationship.  It is not correct to dismiss this until the causes are known for sure.]

Other elements of her story are exaggerated (or worse) by the storytelling in the video. A scene in Plandemic shows a SWAT team while Mikovits talks about being arrested without a warrant—but the footage is from an unrelated event and a news story at the time states that she turned herself in.  [So here we have two versions of a story.  Do you have evidence to support either of them?]

The events she was involved in were well covered in news stories and in science journals at the time; here’s a 1985 article from Science on the dispute over who confirmed the HIV results first. (There is no reason to believe that a publication delay here cost lives, as she claims.) [When there is no reason to DISBELIEVE Mikovits’ report, you choose to say there is no reason to “BELIEVE” this report.  If you don’t know positively, why do you cast doubt on Mikovits?]

But enough about Mikovits. Is what she is saying true?

Does the COVID-19 virus show signs of having been created in a lab?

No. There are many coronaviruses, and scientists have long known that occasionally, a virus that infects one animal can end up being able to infect another (such as humans) with a small genetic change. There’s no reason to believe, as Mikovits says, that it would take “800 years” of evolution. Several pandemic viruses have emerged as a result of animal-to-human spillover. SARS, MERS, Ebola and multiple pandemic flu strains (including the 1918 and the 2009 ones) are just a few of these, and scientists have been warning for decades that there’s always another just around the corner. Here’s an excellent 2012 book by David Quammen that follows several teams of scientists who study these events and are trying to predict and understand where it might happen next.  [We have seen epidemics and pandemics in the past.  They have been rare events.  Until this COVID-19 pandemic, the most recent one of these proportions was over 100 years ago.  The origin of the Spanish flu is not certain but it is widely believed to have been a kind of bird flu passed through hogs to humans in the Midwest.  No one suspects that this was engineered.  Since that time advances have been made in engineering viruses - this is the basis of the study and development of vaccines, in fact.  It is entirely possible that a virus could be engineered.  We don’t know the origin of this virus because, as stated above, China, for some reason we can only guess at, refuses an independent investigation to take place.  It is peculiar that China first disinfected and then demolished the Wuhan wet market that was first pinpointed as the “source”.  They then destroyed all samples of the virus, threatened whistleblowers and those who were raising questions in the press.  China also banned the W.H.O. from their facilities.  It is no wonder that people are drawn to speculate on the possibly sinister reasons for this suppression of information.]

Yes, there is a lab in Wuhan, China, that studies coronaviruses. It was founded in the wake of the SARS epidemic (which was also caused by a coronavirus) and yes, the US funded it, because if you’re interested in preventing pandemics, one thing you might do is fund the study of the same sorts of viruses that have caused large-scale epidemics in the past. There’s nothing fishy about this.  [Actually, there is something “fishy” about this.  Why would a prominent, well-funded American researcher with labs at his disposal in the United States - plus plenty of Chinese researchers willing to work here, prefer to do his research in China?  One of the difficulties in any medical research is our requirement that we not place healthy people at risk.  We have a lengthy process to go from the initial phases of research to a marketable drug or vaccine.  This is to protect us and others from reckless experimentation or a rush to market with products whose safety has not been proven.  An impatient researcher might find this restrictive.  The reason that some scientists prefer to do research in China is because these considerations are not an obstacle there.  We have seen how China treats its own people.  We have seen them welded into their homes and left uncared for.  We already know about the live organ harvesting - this has been documented.  No one disputes this information (with the possible exception of the communist government).  This is one example of a procedure that would not be permitted in a civilized westernized nation.  And, by the way, if you’re interested in preventing pandemics like these, apparently their research was no help at all.  Without their “research” we would have no pandemic.]

Scientists have repeatedly debunked the idea that the virus was artificially made. Its genome shows its clear relation to animal viruses, and not to coronavirus samples from the Wuhan lab. [WHAT “coronavirus samples from the Wuhan lab”?  There ARE no samples.  That is the point.  This statement is absolutely unfounded.  We simply do not know the origin of the virus.  As stated above, China will not permit that kind of investigation to take place FOR SOME REASON.  But we do not have samples from the Wuhan lab.]

Is Dr. Fauci really a mastermind behind everything?

Mikovits keeps dropping Fauci’s name, but never actually connects him in any material way to the story she’s telling. The man runs a gigantic government agency; it’s not like he was in the office next door to hers personally interfering with things. [Yes.  He does run a gigantic government agency.  He did not run a gigantic government agency in the 80s, however.  Do you know where his office was?  Mikovits seemed quite clear about Fauci’s role in this.  His association with the Wuhan lab makes it virtually impossible, also, for him to be objective about the safety or the operation of that lab.  He should recuse himself.  Instead, he persists in dismissing, without any good explanation, the possibility that this virus came out of the lab.  Note:  it is not the same thing to say that the lab created the virus as to say the virus came from the lab.  It is entirely possible that the virus escaped the lab through negligence or accident without saying, as Mikovits actually does, that the virus was created there.  It is yet another thing to say it was a bioweapon and still another to say it was deliberately released - neither of which is alleged by Mikovits.]

Listen carefully for his name throughout the video and you’ll see what I mean. It’s never actually connected to anything. For example, Mikovits alleges that Fauci orchestrated a coverup (of what is unclear), saying that people were “paid off big time.” Sounds spooky. But then she clarifies that she means researchers’ labs that  got funding from NIAID. That’s not a payoff. That’s the normal way a lot of science is funded. If there’s any reason to believe something sketchy was going on in the funding allocation, we haven’t seen any evidence for it.  [We should be very wary of the NIAID.  They have a great deal of taxpayers’ dollars invested in the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab.  This actually is a problem.   There is no U.S. oversight.  In fact, as we have seen, there is no U.S. access to the Wuhan facility.  Is there some good reason why we should trust Wuhan with American tax dollars?  Then, is there some reason we should trust NIAID with our money?  This is very sketchy to say the least.]

Do the FDA and Big Pharma ban cheap drugs as a money making ploy?

Mikovits alleges that pharmaceutical companies are only interested in drugs they can patent and charge a ton of money for. It’s true that pharma companies’ business practices involve hiking up prices of drugs, and patents help, but Mikovits is sadly under-informed if she thinks drug companies need to conspire with the FDA to pull cheap drugs from the market to make this happen. If a drug works, the obvious move is to enjoy the increased demand and charge more.

I mean, we know this. Remember daraprim, the drug whose price Martin Shkreli infamously jacked up? It’s still going for nearly $700 a pill, retail price (less with a coupon, but that’s a whole ‘nother racket) and it’s not patented at all. Epinephrine isn’t patented either, but look at the price of Epi-Pens.

Charging a ton for drugs is business as usual, and completely legal. You don’t need a conspiracy theory to explain it.

As for her specific claims: Mikovits mentions a cheap, older drug called suramin that supposedly treated autism. The actual results of that trial were not as she describes.  [The jury is not in on suramin.  Research has shown some promise in this drug.  There is no reason to apply the term “supposedly” to this.  It has been tried and found somewhat promising.  Much more research should be done with this application of suramin.]

She also mentions hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment that is being squelched. Actually, there are 169 trials of it ongoing right now. It’s being used so widely off-label that the supply for people who need it for other conditions, like lupus, is in danger. And despite her claims in the video, there isn’t any solid evidence that it works—just hope.  [If you listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci you will hear hydroxychloroquine pooh-poohed regularly.  When you say 169 trials, are there 169 “studies” going on or simply 169 patients receiving the drug?  It would seem that production of this could be increased if there is a shortage.  Inasmuch as we are now advised that we should be expecting pandemics, such drugs might be produced in larger quantities.  If we can shut down the entire world economy for an indefinite period of time we can surely produce an adequate amount of hydroxychloroquine, one would think.]

Here’s a truth: The company that makes remdesivir, one of the currently most promising COVID-19 drugs, will almost certainly charge an unreasonable amount per dose just because they can. No conspiracy needed: That is literally the way our system is set up. Anybody who thinks Big Pharma needs a conspiracy to make money hasn’t been paying attention to how Big Pharma actually works.  [I think we can all get onboard the “hate Big Pharma” train.  I would recommend that anyone interested in the process of drug approval and the FDA read Talking Back to Prozac by Peter Breggins, St. Martin’s Press, 1995.  It will give you a new perspective on our government agencies.]

Does wearing masks make us more susceptible to the coronavirus?

No. The video says that masks “activate” the virus. Where’s the evidence for that? There isn’t any. (This, by the way, is a specific claim that Facebook cites in removing the video as misinformation. “Suggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm, so we’re removing the video,” the company told the New York Times.)  [I have been in favor of masks just to prevent us infecting each other in the event we are “asymptomatic”.  I think they should be reserved for when inside public buildings around other people.  It is interesting that some “authorities” like Dr. Theresa Tam, advocate - or did advocate - against masks except for medical personnel.  The success of Taiwan against this virus pandemic seems to be worth emulating and they do use masks.  However, they also give every single person 3 new masks per week, so they are not inhaling weeks and weeks of recycled viruses, germs and other particles.  If we use masks, it would be worthwhile to make several of the “homemade” kind that we can wash and reuse.  I think we can all rest assured that Dr. Tam will NOT be deplatformed for advising us not to wear masks.]

Does staying inside weaken our immune systems?

No. Why would it? There is a theory that exposure to microbes while children are growing up can affect their immune function as adults, but there is no known phenomenon in which immunity fades when we stay inside. There are plenty of microbes inside our houses, anyway   [It is pretty well accepted that we need Vitamin D in order to fight infection and to be healthy.  I learned this the hard way personally.  When a broken bone would not heal, it turned out that my Vitamin D levels were dangerously low.  The doctor who finally discovered this deficiency said that there was no way that I could recover from anything until my Vitamin D levels reached “normal” levels.  In addition to megadoses of the vitamin, he prescribed spending time outdoors because the sun is essential.  Most of us do not have a solarium in our homes.  I don’t.  Obviously it is better when possible to be outdoors - especially for kids who have been kept inside for extended periods.  It is unnatural to stay inside for no reason.]

By the way, the doctors quoted in this portion of the video are Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi of Bakersfield, California. Plandemic makes it look like these two are speaking for many doctors, sharing common sense observations, but that’s not the case. The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) released a statement in which they “jointly and emphatically condemn” the doctors’ video (which was published on its own, before Plandemic’s release) for pushing misinformation.  [Does the AAEM or the ACEP speak for all doctors?  Plandemic presents these doctors and they share common opinions and observations.  I don’t believe they said they spoke for all doctors or even most doctors.  I think, however, that their voices should be heard as well as the AAEM or the ACEP.  Perhaps Plandemic could have presented these others - I would have liked to see contrasting views and some support for them.  I don’t disagree with this criticism.]

Does the flu vaccine make you more susceptible to the coronavirus?

Not that we know of. There was no study done on the flu vaccine and COVID-19, and studies that looked at the flu vaccine’s effects on colds (some of which are caused by other members of the coronavirus family) found mixed results.  [Studies indicate that it does.]

Are COVID-19 death counts inflated?

It’s hard to know the true numbers, but since tests still aren’t widely available, we’re more likely to be undercounting than overcounting.  [If you say there are doubts, why do you automatically believe we are “undercounting”?  How is this even possible? You have just revealed bias here.]

Still, this is an easy question. You don’t need test results to see that deaths from all causes have skyrocketed since the pandemic began, in every country.  [My state has ordered that elderly people who die in the hospital are to be counted as “coronavirus” deaths - EVEN WITHOUT TESTING THEM.  It is no wonder if there is suspicion that numbers are being inflated.  Some doctors are reporting pressure to report this way.  Should we call them liars?  Why?  So that they can be ridiculed or shunned by their profession?  What would motivate them to make this up?  Clearly someone wants high numbers - maybe different people want high numbers for different reasons.  We are not unreasonable to speculate about this.]

Do hospitals get more money if they diagnose a patient with COVID-19 or put them on a ventilator?

Yes, because hospitals charge more for treatments that require more resources. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients tend to be sicker and stay longer in the hospital than patients with other conditions. When Mikovits talks about Medicare giving hospitals $13,000 for COVID-19 patients, that’s not a gift or a bonus. It’s the price tag for their care.  [We’ve seen the TikTok videos with the nurses clowning around.  They have no work.  Hospitals have stopped doing all of their normal work - people are going without normal medical procedures and care because the government has so ordered.  It is necessary for them to max out whatever they can to make up the lost revenue due to the coronavirus hype.  It is true that coronavirus is serious - some people are dying from it.  Many, in fact.  But if the only income a hospital can generate comes from coronavirus, it is going to result in overuse of coronavirus funding.]

Does this conspiracy theory even hold together?

Here’s the funny thing: no.

I listened carefully for the part where Mikovits—or anybody—explains why and how this pandemic was planned (because that’s the claim, right? Plandemic?). I was waiting to see how airtight the logic was, how hard it would be to pick it apart. It’s gotta be good, right?

This is all we get. Mikovits says:

The game is to prevent the therapies until everyone is infected, then push the vaccines.

What kind of grand master plan is that? Once everybody is infected, nobody needs a vaccine. On the flip side, if you had effective therapies now, literally everybody would buy them. If you were unleashing a virus as a get-rich-quick scheme, wouldn’t you start selling a drug ASAP?  [there is no evidence or claim that anyone has “unleashed” this pandemic.  This is why I do not believe that China deliberately did this.  They have no drug to sell yet either.  I believe, therefore, that this got out accidentally.  But now that it is out, there is obviously a mad rush to get to market with something.  Development of a vaccine is preferred - which means you must infect otherwise healthy people - over a treatment or medication for the disease - which means you would be actually helping someone who is sick - because our government has exempted a drug company from liability for injury claims against companies for vaccines, but there remains liability for injury caused by treatments or medications.  Obviously a researcher will prefer the vaccines.]

There’s another thing, too, and it’s a flaw in all conspiracy theories: how do you get every pharma company and every world government in on the grift? How do you even get one government to put forth a united front on an issue?

The White House and the CDC can’t even agree on whether we need a coronavirus task force. And we’re supposed to believe that our government is not only acting according to a single plan, but also coordinating with multiple pharmaceutical companies, and acting in lockstep with every government worldwide?   [Our government is very large and complex with many layers of authority.  This is why there is often a seeming “disconnect” between Trump and his “task force”.  Just as in a university, there are many conflicting interests everywhere.  Often it is a fierce competition.]

Once you think about it, you’ll see right through this in a second. Did they really use a closing shot of Fauci predicting a pandemic to imply that he started it? Or is it more likely that everybody who studies infectious disease knows that a pandemic is always around the corner, [it has been 100 years since we have seen anything like this.  No one alive today has been through anything like this] and we better be prepared? There have been pandemics in the past—it’s not like the Black Death escaped from a medieval biosafety lab  [no, it didn’t.  People did not have the capability of engineering viruses in the 14th Century but we also did not have knowledge of what conditions gave rise to it, so it spread widely]—and there will be more in the future. Truth is stranger than fiction, and there’s no need to film fiction documentary-style to make it look like truth.

Updated 5/8/2020 at 7:42 p.m. to say “animal-to-human spillover,” as the surrounding text discusses, instead of the other way round.

Beth Skwarecki

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Beth is Lifehacker's Senior Health Editor. She has written about health and science for over a decade, including two books: Outbreak! and Genetics 101. Her Wilks score is 302.

  It is important for us to have access to a wide variety - the full spectrum - of ideas and theories, especially when we are dealing with something where there is little certain knowledge and ideas, however off-beat, might lead us to the truth or some answers at least.  There is no place in America for silencing people with whom we might disagree.  That is for China, and in the current example we can see just how well that works.  A nation that suppresses people’s expression and tries to control their thoughts and words, is a danger to the world.  We can hear someone who is telling us things we don’t believe and that might encourage us to look for other experts, other voices.  This is why a free country will always progress while others which stifle speech and thought are relegated to stealing the intellectual properties developed in free countries, a phenomenon we see with China.  They have proclaimed (and are now soft-pedaling) an initiative called “China 2025”, which is all about owning all the intellectual property by 2025.  They sell worthless merchandise to countries who trade with them.  They nationalize companies’ property and products which have invested in China.  They exploit their own people in every possible way, from slave labor to live organ transplants, which have become a huge business in China.  Doubt me?  Check this out.  You will find some people who will tell you it’s all a “conspiracy theory” but then look at the wait times for organ transplants.  Look at the sudden jump in numbers of organ transplants performed in China.  Look at some of the eyewitness reports.  Then believe what you want to believe, or believe the truth.  One of the things which I object to most is the idea that anyone who considers the possibility of a conspiracy is a “conspiracy theorist” (i.e. a tin-hat-wearing nut).  Many years ago the whole “lone gunman” theory of Lee Harvey Oswald assassinating John Kennedy was debunked.  Yet there are those who persist in calling anyone who doubts the “magic bullet” concept a “conspiracy theorist”.  There are theories.  There are conspiracies.  If you doubt that there are conspiracies then you have been missing a lot.  Not everything is a conspiracy.  But if we dismiss everything we find uncomfortable or threatening to us as a “conspiracy theory” we will not be moved to seek the truth.  I think it is always worth finding the truth or at least seeking it.

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