‘Plandemic’ Movie Has Spread COVID-19 Falsehoods Widely Online

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no shortage of conspiracy theories. And on May 4, a 26-minute video named, Plandemic, joined the list of conspiracy theories that have been widely spread on social media and the Internet. 

Plandemic was produced by Mikki Willis’s production company, Elevate, based in California. Willis uploaded the video to Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo on May 4, where it then got traction and began to spread online. After one week of being uploaded, Plandemic had been viewed over eight million times on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Willis has been known to produce other conspiracy videos in the past and claims the video released on May 4, is a trailer for a film that will be released sometime this summer.

The video features Judy Mikovits, a discredited scientist, who has also been described as an anti-vaccine activist. It also includes many widely debunked claims, raising questions and distrust for the medical community, by the people who have viewed the video.

Plandemic has also overshadowed many mainstream online events. Plandemic has been liked, commented and shared over 2.5 million times on Facebook while Taylor Swift’s May 8 announcement of her “City of Lover” virtual concert only had about 110,000 interactions on Facebook for example.