The pandemic caused due to the coronavirus, has also flooded the entire world with the misinformation as well as the fake news. COVID-19, brought with it a number of conspiracy theories, and amongst all of them the most popular one being Plandemic.
Plandemic is also one of the conspiracy theory video, which is more like a documentary which is 26 minutes long in its duration. This conspiracy theory video is released in May 2020 and this itself becomes a prime reason for it being the most discussed topic all around the world. This video had spread a lot of misinformation as well as the fake news regarding the coronavirus. This documentary was found to be produced by Mikki Willis’s California-based production company Elevate. And it is also believed that the same company had also produced a variety of conspiracy videos in the past.
The producers of this documentary also claimed that this video was rather just a trailer for their movie which is supposed to be released in summers of 2020. This video had disgraced a former medical researcher whose name is Judy Mikovits. In this conspiracy video, Mikovits had been showcased as an anti-vaccine activist, an accusation that she denies. This video which was backed by a number of conspiracy theorists actually made it one of the most popular around the world, also fetched millions of views to this video.
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Thus, making it “one of the most widespread pieces of coronavirus misinformation”. The video had been removed from almost all the platforms, whether it is Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Vimeo, due to the misleading content which it is conveying to the public and unethically promoting the false information.
The video was criticized by scientists and health professionals for promoting misinformation and conspiracy theories. Science magazine released an editorial piece fact-checking the video and detailing its inaccuracies and misleading claims.
Physician and comedian Zubin Damania wrote in his commentary, “Don’t waste your time watching it. Don’t waste your time sharing it. Don’t waste your time talking about it. I can’t believe I’m wasting my time doing this. But I just want to stop getting messages about it.”
Science journalist Tara Haelle described the film as propaganda, and posited that the film “has been extremely successful at promoting misinformation for three reasons”: (1) it “taps into people’s uncertainty, anxiety and need for answers”; (2) it “is packaged very professionally and uses common conventions people already associate with factual documentaries”; and (3) it effectively exploits various methods of persuasion, including the use of a seemingly trustworthy and sympathetic narrator, appeals of emotion, the Gish Gallop, and “sciencey” images. Willis stated that propaganda was a fair description of the film.