Last Updated on October 20, 2021 by Team THIP
Quick Take
A number of social media users are sharing a screenshot of an article claiming that Bill Gates had called for withdrawal of Covid-19 vaccines. We fact-checked and found that the claim is false.
The Claim
“Bill Gates calls for the withdrawal of all covid vaccines. OPINION– In a shocking announcement, Bill Gates, billionaire Microsoft co-founder and the major force behind the COVID-19 vaccines, called for all the COVID-19 genetic-based vaccines to be taken off the market immediately. In an often anguished 19-minute televised speech, Gates said: “We made a terrible mistake. We wanted to protect people against a dangerous virus. But it turns out the virus is much less dangerous than we thought. And the vaccine is far more dangerous than anyone imagined,” the Facebook post read. Such posts can be seen here, here, and here. A screenshot is given below.
Fact Check
Has Bill Gates called for Covid-19 vaccine withdrawal?
No. Bill Gates made no such demands or suggestions.
Any such news would have been widely covered by media platforms across the world. However, a quick search shows that there is no news about Bill Gates making any comments about the vaccine.
Why are social media users claiming that Bill Gates called for vaccine withdrawal?
Most social media users who posted the claim also shared an article from a website called The Expose. A search with the texts of the post also lead us to the same article from where it was picked up. However, the article is a work of satire. It clearly mentions in its title “Satire – In an alternate universe….” indicating that it is a work of fiction.
After the article became viral and confusion arose, the editor of The Expose further put in a foot note at the end of the article clarifying that the article is a work of fiction.
Most social media users misunderstood the satire article as a real news reporting and shared it.
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