On October 15, web-page “publishers.ge” published an article stating that coronavirus pandemic doesn’t exist and it was invented by Masonry to reduce the world population. The article uses the case of Iraq as an argument and argues that the virus doesn’t exist in Iraq since there was no need for it there. Astrologer Mikheil Tsagareli’s photo is attached to the article, albeit it doesn’t indicate if he provided this information.
Per data from Crowdtangle, the article has 51 shares, whereas an identical article with 820 shares can be found on abcnews.com.ge on June 15 as well.
The claim that a pandemic was invented and the actual goal was to reduce the world population is a well-known conspiracy theory. Moreover, the statement as if coronavirus “doesn’t’ rampage” in Iraq is disinformative, Iraq has 430,678 infected and 10,317 dead as of October 20.
- Claim about the artificially created virus and a plan to reduce the population is a conspiracy theory
Conspiracy about the coronavirus being artificially created to reduce the world population has frequently disseminated online following the announcement of the pandemic. “Myth Detector” has previously written fact-checks regarding that.
Majority of the scientists who’ve studied the new COVID-19 virus agree that it has been formed naturally and moved from an animal – probably a bat – to humans. The genetic composition of the new coronavirus has been studied and publicly shared on multiple occasions, a trace of genetic manipulations hasn’t been discovered in the genome.
- Iraq ranks 15th in the world based on coronavirus infection rate
Claim as if coronavirus “doesn’t rampage” in Iraq is disinformation. According to worldometr, as of October 20, Iraq is in 15th place in the world based on infection rate with 430,678 infected people. As for the death rate, Iraq ranks 19th in the world and as of October 20, 10,317 people are dead. Therefore, the claim that the virus has spread only in specific countries and that contamination of developing countries wasn’t part of Masonry’s plan is groundless.
Even though the mentioned quote with the exact wording cannot be found in open sources, Mikheil Tsagareli on his TV program frequently spoke about the pandemic and mentioned that the virus is artificially created and the goal is to reduce the population. Tsagareli also disseminated conspiracy about Bill Gates and Elon Musk’s link to coronavirus and noted that vaccine enables Bill Gates and Elon Musk to implant a chip in the human body and with it, dominate the world.
Dissemination of Publishers.ge article
Publishers.ge is a clickbait webpage, whose “about” section mentions that it’s an information-entertaining portal that was created in 2015. The link to the mentioned article has 51 shares.
Article published on the webpage was shared in the following groups: მთავარი არხი / Mtavari Arkhi (Mtavari Arkhi/Mtavari Arkhi), კორონა აფიორა (Corona Houx), პრემიერ-მინისტრი გიორგი გახარია (Prime-Minister Giorgi Gakharia), Shoto sixarulidze kartveli emigrantebi შოთო სიხარულიძე ქართველი ემიგრანტები (Shota Sikharulidze Georgian Emigrants), ემიგრანტის პირადი სივრცე (Private Space for Emigrant), ანტილიბერალური სივრცე (Anti-liberal Space), აქტუალური თემები (Current Topics), საინტერესო მოვლენები და ფაქტები! (Interesting Events and Facts), რუსთავი 21 ∆ RUSTAVI 21 (Rustavi 21∆ Rustavi 21). The post was deleted in some groups.
Link shared in a group მთავარი არხი / Mtavari Arkhi (Mtavari Arkhi/Mtavari Arkhi) has 22 shares.
On June 15, clickbait webpage abcnews.com.ge shared the identical quote, the mentioned article has 820 shares.
Read “Myth Detector’s” fact-checks on this topic:
- Where does the conspiracy as if COVID-19 pandemic was planned to reduce population and enrich pharmaceutical companies originate from?
- Does Bill Gates promise us depopulation and chipping?
Data from CrowdTangle, a public insights tool owned and operated by Facebook.
