The producers of a viral conspiracy film that falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines cause people to die suddenly released a trailer for a second, equally unsubstantiated “documentary.” The new film repeats several conspiracy theories, including that COVID-19 vaccines are bioweapons, that governments planned the pandemic to control people, and that SARS-CoV-2 was developed by pharmaceutical research.
The first film had a lasting impact on anti-vaccine narratives, which increases the potential risk of the new film. Debunking messaging may emphasize that the trailer for the new film, like the original, is full of misleading quotes, misrepresentations, and blatant lies. The claim that the vaccines are bioweapons is based on an interview with a Pfizer “whistleblower” who didn’t work in vaccine research. There is no evidence to support the conspiracy theory that governments or pharmaceutical companies were involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus, a family of viruses that caused multiple major outbreaks in the two decades leading up to the pandemic. Continuing to emphasize that over 70 percent of the world’s population has been safely vaccinated against COVID-19 with no evidence of widespread health issues is recommended.
