FALSE: DO NOT SHARE
Claim:
A secret elite put clues about planning COVID-19 in TV shows.
Answer:
False. COVID-19 is thought to have originated in wildlife and was not engineered in a lab.
FURTHER INFORMATION
This video contains clips from The Simpsons, the Resident Evil films, Netflix and other TV shows which they say show that ‘an elite’ expected the coronavirus outbreak to happen. This video is by Odd TV, a Youtube channel with a number of conspiracy theory videos.
There are a wide range of conspiracy theories in this video, focusing on the theme of ‘truth in plain sight’ – that an ‘elite’ have left clues in popular culture of what they are planning. There are references to the Illuminati, the Eye of Horus, the flat earth theory and many other related conspiracy theories. The Illuminati are described as a secret satanic cabal that are the puppet-masters of us all, using celebrities like Tom Hanks to get their message across to the public. These theories are often antisemitic in nature, with mentions in this video of the Rothchild family and the Star of David. At the end of the video the narrator suggests the viewer should engage in civil disobedience like refusing medical assistance and vandalism.
This is false. The coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) was new to science when first observed in the city of Wuhan, China in late 2019. The virus is thought to be of a natural origin and not engineered in a lab.
COVID-19 has so far globally killed over 200,000 people. Scientists from many countries are working together to find a treatment or a vaccine against it. We have written before about ‘Anti-Vaxxer’ false claims that a potential vaccine to the coronavirus that will be forced on the public.
SOURCES
WHO: Q&A on coronavirus (COVID-19)
John Hopkins University in BBC News, ‘Coronavirus: Worldwide death toll climbs to 200,000’
Origins of Claim
FULL TEXT OF CLAIM
“Right before this all started happening all these TV shows and documentaries were coming out, right before coronavirus actually happened… It is easy to see that they are ramping up the programming. They want to condition us into thinking that this is all so normal, and most of all they want people to accept vaccinations… They want us to think that vaccinations are good for us, which they are not and they never will be. They are using Tom Hanks to brainwash people. ”
