Simple stories spread faster than uncomfortable facts
Introduction
I’m sure everyone is aware that social media is littered with discussions of conspiracy regarding covid, AKA the "Plandemic". During recent months my time on social media is increasingly engaging with those trying to convince me - and anyone who would hear - that a pandemic-led consipiracy is in full swing. While there are many who are vocal, evidence is hard to find. Western mainstream media state such information is misinformation. Factcheckers are dismissed as "fake".
As a professional scientist I am required to undertake a certain number of hours of “Continuing Professional Development” (CPD). In tandem covid conspiracy theorists are yelling at me online to "do (my) research". This would be opportune act of symmetry to both satisfy you, the reader, that I have explored the issue adequately; and use my CPD to all of our advantages. We all want to be sure, right? Right?
So this year I am using my CPD to look into this whole "Bill Gates" thing.
Public health is a branch of science that, to be fair, is out of my general domain of expertise. I'm not an epidemiologist, nor a virologist. I am not a vaccinologist. I am however an environmental scientist by training, so I have a grip on basic life-processes. This affords me a certain degree of competence to facilitate an examination of these issues a little more closely. My intention is to use this platform as a discussion place. All are invited to submit any evidence they have and to critically assess any "facts". In science, everything is questioned with a strict code of rigour. You are a scientist if you have an open and enquiring mind. Welcome.
This article will change and evolve over time. If you disagree with any statement you are invited to provide your facts, or links to sound investigative sources. Namecalling won't be helpful. I don't know about you, but my mind has never been changed by someone calling me a %^6womble. If you're convinced you'll have your evidence. If your view is based on what your mate says, then I suggest your mind could become a little more independent; a little more scientific.
"Question everything" does not translate as "everything is fake". It means using strict - objective - methods to answer one simple question: am I wrong?
Hopefully the discussions below open all of our minds a little more; and narrow our discourse down to something we can all agree is "the truth".
So what 's the conspiracy theory?
It has taken over two months to find anyone whom I've engaged with to provide evidence – or at least links showing evidence - relating to a global conspiracy involving a Covid-19 hoax. I'm very grateful to that person. They will not be named and I stress not to be ridiculed either. They have at least put some sort of care and attention into this, to gather information instead of spending days on social media just telling people to “go and do the research”.
There does not appear to be a “standard” theory of what this conspiracy is. In general terms it appears to suggest that big business and pharma and global governments have been conspiring to develop something known as “The Great Reset”.
The intention of "The Great Reset", so the theory goes, is to use Artifical Intelligence (AI), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and microchip implants to create a society without need for money or employment. Our emerging AI machines ensure people no longer work, but live with a universal basic income. Transport is possessionless, with driverless rented-cars only five minutes away from your doorstep. The internet of things monitors every aspect of our lives and facial recognition ensures that everyone is locked in and compliant. 
To reach critical mass, global conspirers have created a pandemic in order to lock people out of jobs, get them used to the idea and then to not replace their jobs. Once they - the conspirers - are sure the pandemic has created an acceptance of this new world order they will lift restrictions and humanity will be trapped. It is apparently a tactic of all top-down oppressors to use "fear" as the weapon to make everyone obedient to the new world order and to accept the removal of basic civil liberties. In this case, Covid-19, or Severe Accute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARSCoV2), to give it its Sunday name.
In another separate - many say related - theory, the Western governments and global businesses want their hands on Africa's mineral resources. The way to do this is, so the rhetoric goes, is to depopulate Africa to an extent that populations would not be able to resist the theft of their inheritance. The big Pharma companies are in league with this and Bill Gates is driving it through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Bill Gates owns stakes in Pfizer and Moderna, two of the companies making the Covid vaccine and he's not to be trusted because he has a history of monopolisation and paralysing young indian girls.
I hope I've covered the bases. If anybody has anything different to add to the theory above I am listening, so please post comments below.
So what's the evidence for this?
THE GREAT RESET
We do have a World Economic Forum that is looking to do something known as "The Great Reset". They have been publishing articles and videos talking about it's greatness. It makes no secret of it. Perhaps one aspect we can all agree on is it's one hell of a meme...!
BILL GATES
As I see it, Bill Gates can be one of three things: 1. He's a philanthropist at heart, aquiring money to undertake good works that others fail to do; 2. An evil genius who is masterminding global world domination; or 3. He's undertaking good works to improve his public image.
Background
In 1998 Bill Gates' Microsoft controlled the operating system of practical every personal computer. The company was censored for monopolising the industry, via use of a browser integrated to the operating system. Other major players fought successfully to have that considered monopolistic and won. This paved the way for the likes of Google to grow. Ironic now that Google now infiltrate practically every aspect of their lives with their own operating system; now attracting their own critics because of their own surveillance, but that's another story. This article provides background to the original Gates issue, with a judgement on Microsoft to "cease and dissist" on their monopolistic activities.
Two years later Bill Gates moved into vaccines through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). It was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the largest private foundation in the world holding $46.8 billion in assets (ref). In 2017 the BMGF was the biggest funder of the World Health Organisation. This disclosure was open and transparent, as it was published by WHO themselves.
Bill Gates and India
There is a claim, becoming more visible on the internet, that Bill Gates has allegedly killed and paralysed women and children with "his" vaccines. Two two main incidents involve a preventative cervical-cancer vaccine and polio.
Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
In 2009 an organisation, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), funded by the BMGF, launched a trial of a vaccine to combat human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is known to initiate cervical cancer. In India seven people were reported to have died in the study. Later - in 2011 - an official indian government committee inverstigated the vaccine trial and heavility critisised it. I have read the official Government Committee report. You can read for yourself that the five of the seven deaths arise from two cases of pesticide poisoning, once from malaria, one from a snake bit and one unknown fever. Nevertheless PATH - not BMGF - was critisised for apparently circumventing proper procedures in order to undertake human-based trials under false pretences. The two vaccines being assessed were made by Merck and GlaxoSmithCline. As far as I can see BMGF has no stock holdings with these companies and the vaccines essentially have nothing to do with him or his foundation.
Polio
There are two types of polio vaccine. One is an injectable shot, developed by Jonas Salk in 1955; the other is orally administered and was developed by Albert Sabin in 1961. These two vaccines have elminated nearly all polio in the world. Polio transmission is associated with poor sanitory conditons. OPV is much cheaper to make and can be administered by non-medical staff. Nevertheless it is known that OPV can cause paralysis. Scientists estimate this to be 1-2/100,000. The United States stopped administering OPV. For poorer countries OPV has continued as it's administration has been very successful in hard to reach areas, practically eliminating polio globally. Between 2005-15 more than 10billion doses of OPV have been administered to over 2.5 billion children worldwide, preventing more than 10 million polio cases during that period (WHO 2016).
The allegation against Bill Gates is "his" polio vaccine was administered in India and caused almost 490k paralysis cases. The claim is attributed to Robert Kennedy Jnr. in April 7th 2020. His main evidence points to a research paper by Dhiman et al (2020). The link is there for you to read. The words "Bill" or "Gates" do not appear in the paper. Dhiman's paper concludes:
"The polio eradication programme succeeded in drastically reducing the global spread of this disease, which was achieved through the use of immunization with OPV. While commending this enormous effort at eradication, our observation supports the hypothesis that the frequency of pulse polio administration is directly or indirectly related to the incidence of NPAFP". In other words, the correlation they found relates to the frequency individuals were given OPV. The paper recognises that lowered frequency of vaccine has taken place since 2017.
Similar paralysis events have been documented elsewhere, not connected with BMGF (Momen and Shakurnia 2016).
I did read a claim about the BMGF being sued by governments over their response. I've yet to find any information on that, so if anybody's got anything I would be delighted to hear about it.
Population Control
It shouldn't come as any surprise that, as a sustainability and environmental scientist, I recognise a linkage with increased population growth and increased resource usage. More people mean more mouths to feed. Global population is increasing by 1.05%.
Recent statistics are showing that the rate of population increases in many critical countries, such as India, is falling (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12266070/ ). This is mainly as a result of availability of contraception and education of women administered by Indian governance.
As for the idea of using population controls as a means of gaining resources from these places, there may well be a desire to take resources. However I am unable to find neither evidence or theory to prove a link between depopulation and resource exploitation. If anything, depopulation would help the citizens of that Country, not business.
As Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, UNFPA's Deputy Executive Director of Managment, says:
Surveillance State
Back in 1998 when I was doing my undergraduate I was informed by one of my lecturers that data is going to be the currency. Websites, internet businesses and organisations are going to do everything to capture all the information about you, such as where you live, what job you have and your interests. Its main purpose we were told was to allow these companies to monetize that data, by selling target-based advertising; something you see and take for granted nowadays. Targeted advertising and company surveillance are very much issues of our modern society. Whether this issue is related to Covid-19, or singly to Bill Gates, is another matter.
Why would this Covid conspiracy urge you to wear a mask through fear when you are trying to create a surveillance state? For me it just does not add up.
Here's something to think about: The vast majority one of us are tracked every single second and, what's worse, we volunteer to do it by accepting cookies and the terms and conditions of our favourite apps. There is hardly a web page online that doesn't have cookies. Try a national newspaper for example and view the list of cookies they have. Of all the active organisations in the West, probably the ones with least knowledge of our business is the state.
CORONAVIRUS-19
At the heart of the "plandemic" conspiracy is coronavirus. Views range from it doesn't exit, to its a front to force us all to take compliance-inducing "vaccine". Many are just worried about intaking anything foreign inside of us. Because the views are many I've grouped the issues surrounding covid-19 into four main themes: (i) Covid-19 doesn't exist; (ii) okay it does exist but its nowhere near as dangerous as we're led to believe; (iii) we're being given vaccines as guinea pigs, mainly relating to the Pfizer and Moderna versions; (iv) and vaccine safety, generally.
Claim 1: Covid doesn't Exist, Look at the False Positives
In the general theory of conspiracy there is a lot of emphasis on two main factors: "false positive" covid tests, indicating the virus is significantly higher than it actually is, or even doesn't exist; and the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) data projections on coronavirus deaths had to be downgraded a couple of times.
Track and Trace Testing - False Positives
I have been watching and monitoring the rollout of the UK Government's Track and Trace system throughout 2020. The UK Government has said repeatedly they would desperately love to have a covid-testing regime that was accurate. That way, they would know instantly who had it and who didn't. Sadly that is not the case.
People that are testing positive and display no symptoms. We know that Covid-19 can show no symptoms in a great number of people (BMJ 2020;371:m4851). Scientists have been looking to test as many people as possible to identify those symptomless covid-cases (Grassley et al 2020). This is to understand where and how Covid is spreading. Sadly the Track and Trace system has still to work effectively. One of the issues is the false readings our tests create (Mayers and Baker 2020). False positives are estimated to be approximately 2.3% of all tests.
There are various tests out there for Covid-19 and they range in effectiveness in terms of accurately identifying its existence (BMJ 2020;371:m4262). In general terms the rapid tests and more blunt and so the accuracy percentage will reduce. False readings have massive implications. The issue with false positives is that people who are able to work cannot. This is an economic issue because not only they can't work, but those in contact with them cannot work either. There are a great many people even within government who are extremely upset about this. This was the primary reason the discussion about "false positives" was covered in Newsnight; relevant because a conspiracy video referenced it. From personal witness the video took the discussion - which I saw live - out of context. That night, they also made a big thing about "false negatives".
I've never seen a conspiracy theorist say anything about "false negatives". In many ways - if you believe covid exists - false negatives are worse. In this scenario people are returning to the workplace thinking with they are safe, when they are in fact infected!
The rapid track and trace has never been perfected.
Claim 2: Covid is Not as Dangerous are We're Led to Believe
Downgraded ONS Data
So the story is Boris Johnson took the UK into lockdown in November but the evidence used to convince us all - the projected deaths if we don't act - was later downgraded. This is true, but he key word I recognise is "projected". Projections - like the weather - are useful as predictive tools; they can spot trends but they are not always accurate.
Since covid-19 has been in the news - and many of my friends and colleagues know about this - I have been monitoring only two statistics: the number of hospital admissions and the number of deaths. For the latter I pay attention mainly to the number of "excess deaths". It would be extremely difficult to make up death figures, especially in the UK with all our form filling beauracracy.
In 2020, 608,002 deaths occurred in England and Wales (ONS 2021). This was 75,925 more deaths than the five-year average (2015 to 2019). This represents an increase of 14%, making it the largest rise in excess deaths for more than 75 years ie the Second World War. So what's happening here? There is evidence to suggest there are other causes, such as depression- and cancer-related deaths, but not even close to account for an extra nearly 76k. Have we been secretly injecting poison into our populations?
Weekly Excess Death Figures for England and Wales 2020 (Source)
The statistical evidence from the UK daily death count are now starting to go down and this directly correlates with our national lockdown measures; as do previous lockdowns and death numbers. The less we are in contact with each other the less deaths occur. It does appear that something is spreading through us.
If anyone has other reasons why our excess deaths are so high and/or why they seem to correlate with lockdown measures, we'd love to hear from you.
Personal Evidence
Other indicators of Covid include eyewitness accounts from trusted sources. I've found plenty, but if you are unsure I suggest finding someone who works either in a hospital or a care home. Prefereably someone you trust. Ask them for their experience.
Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are causing concern among a highly vocal grouping on Social Media. The technology they are employing is different to the traditional mechanism of injectable vaccine. Let's look at this more closely.
When you are infected by a virus the body produces antibodies to assist its removal (BSI 2020). These antibodies are bespoke and depends on the unique virus structure-type. The mechanism of response is complex but involves the production of something known as messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to program cells to produce the appropriate antibody. It can take time for this process to fully activate: time to recognise a foreign invader and then time to produce the appropriate antibodies.
With traditional vaccine you create a weakended or - as in covid's case - an inert replication of the virus and once it enters the body it triggers the production of antibodies to lock on to it and get rid of it. When the body is then infected with the virus, it has already got its immune system primed to react to it. Therefore the infection is fought off much quicker, with symptoms either prevented or at most very mild.
The new vaccine type, such as the ones developed by Pfizer and Moderna, goes more into the machine code of immune response. Instead of putting in a replication of the virus, it directly sends in the mRNA to trigger the production of the inert protein spike of the covid-19, which then in turn triggers appropriate antibodies.
During my undergraduate I learned that "DNA makes RNA makes Protein". This is the central dogma of molecular biology. DNA exists in a cell's central area - its nucleus. mRNA operates outside the nucleus to produce proteins. This link will explain the process in a bit more detail for those that are interested and a summary of the mRNA production process is here. Fundamentally I recognise that mRNA does not and cannot re-enter the nucleus. Even if it were to, its structure does not facilitate a change in DNA structure. Now, how do you explain this logically? Its like a mechanic having to explain why you can't reverse engineer an exhaust pipe to change an engine's fuel. Its just something that doesn't come up.
Adverse Reactions
As of Dec. 23rd, 0.2% from just over 1.8m doses of Pfizer-BioNTec-covid vaccines have shown adverse reaction (CDC 2021). Of these 175 were identified as possible cases of severe reaction. The most severe - 11.1 cases per million vaccine doses administered - has been recognised as arising from anaphylaxis.
Some within social media suggest this anaphylaxis is connected with the mRNA vaccines. This is true, but treatable.
There is a growing concern among medical professionals about the use of the protection material (Poly-Ethylene-Glycol, or PEG for short) used in the covid mRNA vaccines. mRNA is easily broken down and requires a packaging material to protect it long enough for it to work. A study in 2016 highlighted an elevated risk of severe adverse reactions as a result of an established set of antibodies primed against this packaging materal. Poly Ethylyne Glycol (PEG) - though not used in a vaccine before - is found in many modern drugs; known as PEG-modified therapeutics. The greatest concern is the allergic reactions faced by a small minority of those receiving the drug; but the other concern is reduced effectiveness of any of these drugs if its driven out of the body too quickly (Yang and Lei 2015). The highest allergic concern is anaphylaxis.
Wyle et al 2016 raised Poly Ethylene Glycol as a potential cause of anaphylaxis. The Anaphylaxis Campaign describe anaphylaxis (pronounced ana-fil-ax-is) as possibly life-threatening but, fortunately, treatable. Its quick onset means those at risk can be monitored. Guidance for health care professionals recommend close observation for at least 15 minutes following vaccination.
I am not finding evidence anywhere to suggest messanger RNA is physically changing our DNA. If anyone has any specific evidence to that effect again we'd love to hear from you.
Covid Vaccine Safety: General
Conspirators I've referenced online quote the Lancet in response to mRNA. In a conspiracy video they state that The Lancet - an independent, international weekly general medical journal - records "misgivings", but don't go into detail. They also quote "no safety data is available". I've now looked at this article. The article is mainly about the future risks arising from Covid-19. Just for the record the article does not suggest Covid is fake, at all.
Having read the article the "safety data" they refer to is all associated with how effective the vaccine rollout will be in reducing Covid infections; its the safety of the public from Covid, not the vaccine. One of their main concerns is "vaccine hesitancy" - the reluctance of vaccine uptake - which they state is a "clear threat to COVID-19 control".
If you are questioning this please feel free to view the entire (short) article and satisfy yourself there is no indication of any vaccine-derived risk. If you do find anything that I've missed, please let me know by commenting at the bottom.
Another claim is that mRNA has never been approved for use before 2020 and research has skipped trials. This is partially true. It has never been approved before 2020, but it has been rigourously tested. Human-based Phase I trials have been reported on Rabies (2017) and influenza. I found this article to be useful in confirming previous mRNA trials. Looking deeper the main source of the conspirators claim comes from an online magazine. The magazine was glossed over by the conspirator video, but the headline looks dramatic. In fact the article states that clinical trials began on humans before its effectiveness against Covid was established by the animal trials; not that they did not occur.
DISCUSSION
There has been a lot of effort in producing this thought piece. Given the constant bombardment of anti-covid and anti-virus claims within social media, it was considered that such amount of effort was necessary. The primary function of this article is to encourage an open dialogue to facilitate consensus about a subject that is not comfortable for practically anyone.
At the beginning of the article I offered two scenarios as to what's currently going on. On the one hand there is a virus first reported in Wuhan, China that has quickly spread around the world. On the other global businesses and governments have constructed a pandemic to stop us working and create a surveillance-led dependent and compliant citizenship. I've presented the evidence as I currently have them and invite you all to digest these or to provide more evidence in the hope that we all can have a common understanding of the reality of now.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates acquired a lot of money, through Microsoft. He has now used some of that money to set up the BMGF. I can't find any credible strong links to connect him with a global conspiracy. So I'm left with two options: 1. He's a philanthropist at heart, aquiring money to undertake good works that others fail to do; 2. He's undertaking good works to improve his public image.
Microsoft's reputation - its trust - had been compromised in 1996 and the subsequent court ruling in 2007. Microsoft was in crisis and so its quite easily believable that he turned to crisis management to deal with it. A general standard reponse from crisis managers is to redeem yourself through charitable works, or "giving back is good for business", The New York Times suggest this idea has merit, reporting it as a Bill Gates "charm offensive" in 2014. As a sustainability practitioner I know this as "Corporate Social Responsibility".
Some people claim that the BMGF was the next great step in his scheme for world domination. Conspirators state he enlisted the top corporates to join in and fund it. From my perspective - with a lack of evidence to suggest anything else - it was other businesses joining the trend to do good works. Millenials apparently love Corporate Social Responsibility. Instinctively, launching so soon after the critism of monopolising comes as no surprise to me. It is a standard approach, if you want to be seen to forward Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Only Bill knows his true motivations. Whatever it was he went big.
CSR evangelizing is something I do every day, given half a chance. I'm doing it now...! Most businesses have yet to truly grasp the transformatory power of it. Get in touch if you're a business and want to know more.
What's the Risk we Face?
All we seem to be left with is a risk, albeit small, for this new type mRNA vaccine. Let's just assume - please - this is a real pandemic and SARS-CoV2 is a real issue. From my perspective we - humanity - are staring at three choices: 1. Fight this virus with every vaccine available, taking the associated risk with it, so we can get everybody back to their work places as quick as possible; 2. We continue with lockdown while we continue trials and all these vaccines for the next couple of years, undertaking full animal testing; or 3. We end all restrictions with no vaccines and just take our chances (like France and Italy now - 5th February 2021). If the latter was to occur indefinately then the prediction is for around 500k in the UK alone succumbing to this disease. You will probably need to open up nightingale hospitals only able to offer palliative - end of life - care. None of the choices are easy for any government.
The new mRNA virus has had trials. It is also not an entirely new technology. It has been trialled extensively in its treatment of another virus. My general knowledge recognises that medical science is inherently risk-averse, because of the "trust" issue - a wrong judgement could set back vaccine development ten years and risk society refusing our standard vaccines administered to children. This in turn risks a return to the bad old days of polio.
It is my view that medical science have taken a cautious, but confident, decision; and politicians - our representatives - are trusting that judgement, with reference to sound Science. As I write this the UK Government is under intense pressure from its own party to lift all restrictions as soon as possible. This is in antithesis to the conspiracy-view to stop us all working for good. In fact from my science perspective the act that will keep us away from work longer is to not take the vaccine. This will only challenge all the efforts to keep this virus under our control.
And the Conspiracy?
There does appear to be a great storm of three emerging, but different, 21st century agendas:
1. Our sustainability;
2. Artifical Intelligence and the rise of robotics; and
3. The surveillance state.
Conspiracy-led videos highlight many top-level politicians having a view on each of these agendas. That doesn't come as any surprise to me. These issues should be discussed within international governance structures. Indeed, from a professional sustainability-practitioner viewpoint I am relieved that humanity has a forum - facilitated through the WEF and the United Nations - to discuss Country-led grievances. I have no evidence to tie all this together as a conspiracy led by them. Moreover the vocal disagreements that are being aired - even by conspiracy videos - should satisfy most these country leaders and other officials are not in agreement.
There are dangerous risks to push a false conspiracy. Sustainability, AI and the surveillance state are all legitimate concerns. To attempt to pull these all together into an unfounded conspiracy risks deligitimising these agendas; having linked them with a global conspiracy will we no longer take these seriously? The conspiracy attacked someone who has used their personal wealth to practically eliminate global polio. What would a future look like if seriously wealthy people are put off from delivering good works? My personal view is an attack on Bill Gates is lazy; he's prominent and he's rich.
So what could be driving the conspiracy? Its most likely a very loose coallition of personal grievances and agendas. It suits a narrative and people can be willing to believe anything if it suits their purpose. The origins of these conspiracies - which is designed to make you fearful - may not even be a friendly power. If its designed to destabilise efforts to get covid under control, then its working.
I've taken the best part of a week out of my desire to forward an agenda of saving us and our kids to address this. I've stepped up and taken that responsibility because many epidemiologists, virologists and the like would consider this just rather beneath them to be honest. It would be like asking a vet to prove a cat's not a fish. I've done it so you, the reader, can look a little more clearer into these claims.
So why would people make these claims up?
At this point I recognise my own limitations and expertise, but this article on another conspiracy movement carries resonance.
CONCLUSION
A general conspiracy theory relating to Bill Gates and "The Great Reset" has been presented. Evidence confirming the theory has been examined and has, thus far, not stood up to scrutiny. It is extremely unlikely that Bill Gates is an evil genius intent on world domination. You are all invited to investigate a little deeper and bring your evidence to this space. I will do, to the best of my ability, every thing I can to present and address them objectively. We are all are invited to learn, grow and develop. Our lives and our kids lives depend on it.
Notes:
Iain Hossack PhD CEnv MIEnvSc is an environmental scientist and sustainability practitioner and has been actively engaged in research since 1995.
At the time of this article - 3rd Feb. 2021 - few were willing to publicly challenge the rising tide of conspiracy narratives—particularly around figures like Gates—while maintaining a grounding in science and systems logic. This post, written with a tone of tongue-in-cheek seriousness, stands as another example of Iain’s insight: engaging where others stayed silent, and doing so with clarity, intent, and resilience. Now, of course, the scale of disinformation is widely recognised. Back then, it was barely confronted.
Our very own Captain Insight!