FALSE: DO NOT SHARE
Claim:
Bill Gates predicted the coronavirus outbreak.
Answer:
False. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded ‘Event 201’ did not specifically predict COVID-19.
FURTHER INFORMATION
A YouTube video shows Italian politician Sara Cunial speaking in the Italian parliament about coronavirus where she makes a number of claims, including that Bill Gates is the main funder of the World Health Organisation, and that he simulated a coronavirus outbreak in October 2019, before the current outbreak.
This is false. Whilst the Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been voicing concerns about the dangers of a global pandemic and involved in work to prepare, ‘Event 201’ did not predict the COVID-19 outbreak specifically. Event 201 was a high-level pandemic exercise in New York on 18th October 2019, run by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Event 201 invited people from business, government and public health to simulate coordinating a policy response to a theoretical pandemic. In the fictional Event 201 scenario, the coronavirus had 65 million people over 18 months. According to the WHO, this coronavirus [Sar-CoV-2] has so far killed 628,240 people over approximately 9 months.
Ms Cunial is Member of Italian Chamber of Deputies for the ruling populist 5 Star Movement, and has espoused numerous conspiracy theories about the effects of 5G, vaccination and the creation of a new world order.
SOURCES
WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard
Origins of Claim
FULL TEXT OF CLAIM
“On May 14, 2020 Congresswoman Sara Cunial accuses Bill Gates and his foundation of ultimate corruption.”
