False: Global elites such as Bill Gates and Dr Fauci lied about the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines to control the population.

Context

A post doing the rounds on social media claims like businessmen Bill Gates, George Soros, and American physician Dr. Anthony Fauci lied about the benefits of COVID -19 vaccines. The post, which implies that vaccines are fatal, reads: "The #vaccine was not made for #covid, #covid was made for the #vaccine. And suddenly it all makes sense. #VaccineSideEffects #vaccination #DepopulationAgenda #mRNA #Pfizer #Moderna. "

The post carries an image of U.S. president's chief medical advisor Dr. Fauci, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Hungarian-American businessman George Soros, along with a text reading, "the same people who believe the Earth is overpopulated say they can save your life with a vaccine!". The post shared by Twitter user @IlluminusIll feeds into a depopulation conspiracy theory, according to which COVID-19 vaccines were introduced to control the world population. 

In Fact

The safety of vaccines has been established by various scientists and medical organizations. According to a study published on June 23, 2022, in the medical journal The Lancet, COVID-19 vaccines have prevented an estimated 14.4 million deaths in 185 countries between December 8, 2020, and December 8, 2021, alone. The study titled "Global impact of the first year of COVID-19 vaccination: a mathematical modelling study" concluded that COVID-19 would have caused 18·1 million deaths "without vaccinations worldwide during the first year of the COVID-19 vaccination program." The study estimated that of these deaths the vaccination prevented 14·4 million deaths "representing a global reduction of 79% of deaths." The Lancet is one of the world's oldest peer-reviewed medical journals and is also widely regarded as the one of the world’s highest-impact academic journal. 

Speaking to Logically, Dr. Suruchi Shukla, Assistant Professor, Virology Lab and Microbiology department, King George's Medical University Lucknow, said, "Like any drug, COVID-19 vaccines have some minor side effects. Very few immunocompromised people witness major side effects. However, we still urge them to get vaccinated because the benefits outweigh the risks." Dr. Shukla added that there is no evidence to support the claim that vaccines are meant to be fatal and insisted that "there is enough proof to show that they(vaccines) are beneficial."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 vaccines protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death. The COVID-19 vaccines authorized by WHO are "safe for most people 18 years and older, including those with pre-existing conditions of any kind such as auto-immune disorders. These conditions include hypertension, diabetes, asthma, pulmonary, liver, and kidney disease, as well as chronic infections that are stable and controlled".

Dr. Fauci, and Gates, among others, have long stressed the importance of COVID-19, however, the philanthropist in April 2021 had come under fire for saying that vaccine formulas should not be shared with developing countries.

Unsubstantiated and misleading claims about the risks of COVID-19 vaccines and articles linking the vaccines to excess deaths have been repeatedly debunked by Logically and other fact-checking organizations.  

The Verdict

There is no evidence to support claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause widespread deaths and are meant to 'depopulate' the earth. The vaccines have saved millions of lives over the years. Therefore, we have marked the claim false.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.