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box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(41, 43, 44); font-family: "PT Serif"; font-size: 16px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">A <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220412163822/https://rumble.com/v10mnew-live-world-premiere-watch-the-water.html" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">new anti-vaccine documentary</a> ridiculously claims that the coronavirus is not a virus, but a synthetic version of snake venom that evil forces are spreading through remdesivir, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and drinking water to “make you a hybrid of Satan.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The 48-minute film, released April 11, is the latest in an expanding genre of mega-viral, conspiracy-laden videos made in the mold of the <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/08/fact-checking-plandemic-documentary-full-false-con/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">“Plandemic”</a> video from May 2020. Its title, “Watch the Water,” <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/mar/25/fact-checkers-guide-ginni-thomas-texts-trumps-chie/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">is a nod</a> to a favorite refrain of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which is centered around the belief that a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running a global sex-trafficking ring.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The video is an interview between <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/magas-new-shock-jock-is-a-bounty-hunter-with-a-troubled-past" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">far-right radio host</a> Stew Peters, who has a history of using inflammatory rhetoric and spreading COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and Bryan Ardis, a former chiropractor who <a href="https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/claim-that-antiviral-drug-remdesivir-killing-people-is-baseless/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">built a brand</a> around <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/10/nicole-sirotek/no-hospitalized-covid-19-patients-werent-killed-re/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">claiming</a> that the drug remdesivir is killing people.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">It showed Ardis, who sells acne products and is now using the film to sell what he calls “anti-v” supplement kits <a href="https://archive.ph/QBV0k" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">online</a>, invoking the Garden of Eden story and a fictional TV show plot as he outlined an elaborate mass-murder scheme that he claimed involves even the pope.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">“I think the plan all along was to get the serpent’s, the evil one’s DNA into your God-created DNA,” Ardis said. “They’re using mRNA, which is mRNA extracted from, I believe, the king cobra venom, the king cobra venom. And I think they want to get that venom inside of you and make you a hybrid of Satan.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The video’s theory is “miles from reality, and indicates a profound lack of understanding in science and medicine, and much twisted logic,” said Dr. David Relman, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. “There is no evidence whatsoever that SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is caused by snakes or snake venom.”<div id="attachment_1003763" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; width: 953px;"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1003763" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-1003763" src="https://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Watch_Water_marked.001.jpeg" alt="" width="943" height="700" srcset="https://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Watch_Water_marked.001.jpeg" sizes="(max-width: 943px) 100vw, 943px" data-elsrc="https://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Watch_Water_marked.001.jpeg" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; border-style: none; vertical-align: middle;" /><p id="caption-attachment-1003763" class="wp-caption-text" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">(PolitiFact)</div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Some members of the anti-vaccine and QAnon movements <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vdkp/bryan-ardis-watch-the-water-snake-venom-covid" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">met Ardis’ venom claims with skepticism</a>. But Peters <a href="https://archive.ph/kEzfR" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">promoted</a> <a href="https://archive.ph/5Kz1N" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">the film widely</a> on the messaging app Telegram, and it racked up nearly 3 million views on Rumble, a video hosting platform, in the week after its release. Social media users shared it across other mainstream platforms, where it was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536?helpref=related" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">partnership with Facebook</a>.)<h1 class="pf_subheadline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; font-size: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; font-family: Poynter-OS-Display, serif; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">COVID-19 is not snake venom</h1><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Early in the documentary, Ardis told Peters he first started investigating a potential link between COVID-19 and snake venom after he received a cryptic text from an unnamed doctor asking, “If you got bit by a rattlesnake, would you go to a hospital and get antivenom?”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The text, Ardis claimed, came in shortly after he had done an interview about the monoclonal antibodies used to treat COVID-19 infections, so that got him thinking.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">He falsely claimed that the monoclonal antibodies are identical to the anti-venoms used to disable the toxins from a snake bite. He then claimed without evidence that if a public health agency advises against a treatment, then that means the treatment actually works.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The Food and Drug Administration in January recommended limiting the use of monoclonal antibodies as COVID-19 treatments after they were shown to be less effective against the newer variants. So Ardis reasoned that if the FDA was discouraging the use of monoclonal antibodies, and if monoclonal antibodies were anti-venoms, then the coronavirus must actually be venom.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">“I realized all of a sudden that monoclonal antibodies are anti-venom,” Ardis said. “The federal government doesn’t want us using anti-venom. Why are they bashing anti-venom, and why are we finding anti-venom works against COVID? Is it not a virus? Is it a venom?”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The answer, experts said, is no.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The monoclonal antibodies used for COVID-19 infections “do not recognize or bind to snake venom,” Relman said. “They have nothing whatsoever to do with snake venom.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;"><a href="https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/snakebite-envenoming/antivenoms" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">Anti-venoms</a> are <a href="https://www.si.edu/spotlight/antibody-initiative/antivenom" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">developed</a> by injecting venom into an animal with a robust immune system, such as a horse, and harvesting the antibodies the animal produces in response.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Monoclonal antibodies are different. They are lab-produced, or cloned, and designed to boost protection against a specific target like the coronavirus. No monoclonal antibodies have been created yet to target snake venoms, said Dr. Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University.<h1 class="pf_subheadline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; font-size: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; font-family: Poynter-OS-Display, serif; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Flimsy evidence</h1><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The coronavirus has been isolated, replicated, sequenced, imaged and studied as it has worked its way across the globe, killing over 6 million people. Scientists have no doubt that it’s a virus.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">But Ardis suggested, for example, that a University of Pittsburgh researcher who was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/researcher-verge-making-very-significant-coronavirus-findings-shot-death-n1200896" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">shot dead</a> in May 2020 was killed because he was going to reveal that COVID-19 was snake venom.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The university told PolitiFact that those allegations are “incorrect and not scientifically valid.” <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2020/05/murder-suicide-involving-pa-coronavirus-researcher-linked-to-intimate-partner-dispute-authorities.html" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">Police said</a> the incident was unrelated to the researcher’s work.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Ardis also cited several studies. He pointed to one early-pandemic study that considered snakes as a COVID-19 reservoir, but Garry said its findings were “very speculative” and <a href="https://virological.org/t/ncov-2019-codon-usage-and-reservoir-not-snakes-v2/339" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">“pretty quickly rejected.”</a><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Ardis <a href="https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2022/04/fact-check-covid-is-virus-not-snake-venom-used-to-poison.html" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">misrepresented</a> <a href="https://archive.ph/N3Lg8" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">a second study</a>, falsely claiming that it showed an enzyme from rattlesnake venom in the blood of COVID-19 patients. In reality, the study found that an enzyme healthy humans already have in their bodies — which is similar but not identical to an enzyme in rattlesnake venom — was circulating at elevated levels in patients who died of COVID-19.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Ardis then described a <a href="https://archive.ph/8WSBn" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">third study</a> in a way that was “not only disturbing and outrageous but is absolutely incorrect,” said Gus Wright of Texas A&M University, one of the study’s co-authors.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The study mapped the genetic makeup of the Indian cobra and, to help develop a more effective anti-venom, identified 19 venom toxins that are specific to that snake.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Ardis implied that the 19 toxins were related to COVID-19, but Wright said the study “in no way has any association with COVID-19.” The 19 in COVID-19 <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/15/kellyanne-conway/kellyanne-conway-misleads-name-covid-19-says-its-n/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">reflects</a> the year it was discovered, 2019.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">“He seems to grab at phrases and fragments of findings and then weave them into a distorted picture,” Relman said.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Toward the end of the film, Ardis went so far as to claim that the phrase “coronavirus pandemic” can translate in Latin to “the pope’s venom pandemic” or “king cobra venom pandemic.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Those interpretations are “completely false,” said Massimo Cè, a <a href="https://badw.de/die-akademie/presse/news/einzelartikel/detail/wortweise-corona-vor-corona.html" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">lexicographer</a> at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, the world’s largest dictionary of Latin. Coronaviruses have been known to scientists by that name for decades, Cè said, and the term itself traces back centuries to the Latin word used to describe the halo of light seen around the sun and the moon.<h1 class="pf_subheadline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; font-size: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; font-family: Poynter-OS-Display, serif; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Evil forces aren’t envenomating people through remdesivir, vaccines and water</h1><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Ardis claimed that evil forces are targeting people with the snake venom through remdesivir, vaccines and drinking water, since venom is a secretion that can’t spread as a respiratory virus.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">His supposed proof included the observation that both remdesivir and snake venom have “a white-to-yellowish tint” when stored, he said. He also referenced <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/may/17/viral-image/no-these-videos-dont-prove-covid-19-vaccines-conta/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">debunked videos</a> in which social media users claimed the vaccines made them magnetic, and that tap <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/dec/06/tweets/no-drinking-water-isnt-testing-positive-covid-19/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">water tests</a> positive for COVID-19. And he showed a clip from a fictional TV show in which a character was poisoned through his drink. Ardis said after he watched the episode, “I realized how they’ve been spreading this.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">But Gilead, the manufacturer of remdesivir, said Ardis’ claims about the drug containing snake venom and causing mass deaths were “entirely false.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Remdesivir is “definitely not venom from a snake,” said Dr. Katherine Seley-Radtke, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The drug’s structure has been repeatedly confirmed as what scientists classify as a “nucleoside analogue,” Seley-Radtke said, while snake venom is “a complex mixture of all sorts of things.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Pfizer also told PolitiFact that its mRNA vaccine is “entirely synthetic and does not contain any animal products.” <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/144414/download" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">Ingredient</a> <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/144638/download" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">lists</a> for COVID-19 vaccines are public.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://archive.ph/Tkbzj" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">says</a> the coronavirus has not been detected in drinking water, either. The creator of the fictional TV show that Ardis cited <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/scicheck-covid-19-is-caused-by-a-virus-not-snake-venom/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">told FactCheck.org</a> that the poisoning scene, which aired in 2017, was not meant to foreshadow the pandemic or the nefarious plot Ardis described.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">“This would require a massive conspiracy of scientists, public health officials, etc., in countries all over the world,” Garry said. “The claims are wildly inaccurate.”<h1 class="pf_subheadline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; font-size: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; font-family: Poynter-OS-Display, serif; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Our ruling</h1><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">Ardis said COVID-19 is a synthetic version of “snake venom” that evil forces are spreading through remdesivir, drinking water and the COVID-19 vaccines to “make you a hybrid of Satan.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">That’s a far cry from reality, experts said. COVID-19 is not snake venom.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">The former chiropractor relied on a mix of misrepresented scientific studies, twisted logic, fictional TV show plotlines, botched Latin, debunked home videos, circumstantial evidence and what he claimed were signs from God to stake his case.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Poynter-Serif-RE, serif; line-height: 1.6;">We rate his statement Pants on Fire!This fact check was originally <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/19/watch-water/stew-peters-film-watch-water-ridiculously-claims-c/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); font-weight: normal; border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">published by PolitiFact</a>, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/19/watch-water/stew-peters-film-watch-water-ridiculously-claims-c/#sources" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); font-weight: normal; border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">here</a> and more of their fact checks <a href="http://politifact.com/" style="outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; color: rgb(80, 131, 61); font-weight: normal; border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 230, 205);">here</a>.</div>=aha: youtube to facebook pipeline/escalator to everyone's news feed [2 biggest FANGs, synergy? amplifier?] plandemic
<a href="https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2020/heres-how-plandemic-went-viral/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2020/heres-how-plandemic-went-viral/</a><a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/08/fact-checking-plandemic-documentary-full-false-con/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/08/fact-checking-plandemic-documentary-full-false-con/</a><a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/23/facebook-posts/no-democrats-arent-pushing-microchips-fight-corona/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/23/facebook-posts/no-democrats-arent-pushing-microchips-fight-corona/</a>
For Erin Gallagher, the conspiratorial documentary “Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19” came to her attention like it did for myself — a question from her mom about the veracity of the 26-minute video full of <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/08/fact-checking-plandemic-documentary-full-false-con/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer;">coronavirus misinformation</a>.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">After hearing about it from more friends and family, Gallagher decided to investigate how the video went viral so quickly.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">Gallagher, an independent social media researcher who has been featured in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/conspiracy-theorists-far-right-agitators-head-white-house-social-media-n1028576" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer;">NBC News</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/twitters-disinformation-data-dumps-helpful/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer;">Wired</a>, analyzed 37,000 posts containing the word “plandemic” and 24,000 posts with the name “Judy Mikovits,” the former National Cancer Institute scientist whose work has been discredited, yet is the key expert in “Plandemic.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">Using graphs showing the Facebook groups where “Plandemic” was posted, along with the type of link users were sharing, she found a pipeline of how this video went viral: from YouTube to Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members and names like “Chemtrails Global Skywatch,” “OFFICIAL Q / QANON” and “Drain the Swamp.” YouTube links were the most commonly-shared access points for “Plandemic,” regardless of how quickly YouTube removed them.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">“Everyone uses multiple platforms to varying degrees now so nothing is ever limited to just one or two,” Gallagher told me this weekend. “But in this case, YouTube hosted the video, and I suspect many mirrors of it once it started getting pulled down, and these large, highly-active Facebook groups were key to spreading it like wildfire and pushing it into all of our families’ Facebook feeds.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">In the “plandemic” keyword data, which was collected between April 8, and May 8, YouTube links posted on Facebook had nearly 200,000 likes and more than 150,000 each of shares and comments.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">I reached out to YouTube and Facebook for comment but haven’t heard back. I will send an updated note with tomorrow’s newsletter if either company responds.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">“‘Plandemic’ creators encouraged viewers to download the video from the documentary’s website and post it across video platforms,” said Alex Kaplan, senior researcher at the left-leaning Media Matters for America. “And you could see the impact: dozens of reuploads of the video on YouTube — even after they tried to remove the original — and shares of it on other platforms.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">[video 6 min ]<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">This isn’t the first YouTube-to-Facebook conspiracy video Kaplan has studied. He found some of the most-viewed YouTube videos touting <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/23/facebook-posts/no-democrats-arent-pushing-microchips-fight-corona/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer;">the debunked claim</a> that Bill Gates is pushing a coronavirus vaccine to microchip the public receiving thousands of engagements on Facebook. And a video calling COVID-19 a “false flag” drew 6 million views on YouTube and more than 1 million engagements on Facebook before it was removed. Both videos went viral over the last two months.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: none; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 20px !important; line-height: 26px !important;">“Be really careful about sharing content coming from places you haven’t heard of before just because it gives you some kind of emotion,” Kaplan said. “Take the time to do some research on the person(s) behind it or the claims made in it, and see if someone, like a fact-checker, has debunked it, before sharing.”</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">===</div>