Disinfo: Bill Gates vaccination in India leaves 490,000 children paralysed

Summary

Indian doctors blame the Gates vaccination campaign for a devastating non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) epidemic that paralysed 490,000 children beyond expected rates between 2000 and 2017. In 2017, the Indian government rolled back Gates’ vaccine regime and asked Gates and his vaccine policies to leave India. NPAFP rates dropped precipitously.

Disproof

Recurring disinfo narrative about Bill Gates' interest in reducing global population through vaccination. See a similar case claiming that Bill Gates generated the coronavirus outbreak by founding both the creation of the virus and the vaccine. No evidence is given to support the claims. The Gates Foundation has supported a polio eradication programme in India through immunisation. The claim made in the article was denied by the Gates Foundation in an email sent to the Poynter Institute in the USA. In March 2014 the World Health Organisation declared Southest Asia, including India, a polio-free region, due to the vaccination. In an explicative note, WHO says it is possible to contract polio from a vaccine, but it is extremely rare, 1 in 2.7 million oral doses could result in vaccine-associated paralytic polio. As for India, between 2000 and 2017, there were 17 cases of vaccine-associated paralytic polio (cVDPV cases) – 15 cases in 2009 and 2 cases in 2010, as shown in a WHO data table. According to the German Fact-Checking-organisation Correctiv, the number of 496,000 children has no link to vaccine-based polio (VDPV). "The number 496,000 apparently refers to a study from August 2018, which deals with cases of paralysis without evidence of polio (Nonpolio Acute Flaccid Paralysis, NPAFP). Between 2000 and 2017, this was registered in 640,000 children in India. The scientists note that this figure is 491,000 cases higher than would normally be expected. They speculate whether there might be a correlation with oral polio vaccines, as NPAFP numbers have been decreasing again since 2012 - in parallel with a reduction in vaccinations ("correlation"). The authors ask whether polio vaccination might make people susceptible to other enteroviruses. However, more studies are needed to prove a causal relationship. The number 491,000 cannot simply be attributed to vaccinations."

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 200
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 18/04/2020
  • Outlet language(s) German
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: India
  • Keywords: vaccination, Bill Gates
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Disproof

Conspiracy theory and part of the recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about lost sovereignty and threatened values. This disinformation message promotes the concept of a big conspiracy and is consistent with the recurring Shadow Government narrative, which pro-Kremlin disinformation sources often deploy as a rhetorical device to undermine the West and the international liberal-democratic institutional order. It is also aimed at discrediting a number of democratic and liberal concepts such as civil society, and to question the legitimacy of Armenian state institutions. See earlier disinformation cases alleging that global neo-colonialists stage colour revolutions and conquer indigenous national elites, that the Anglo-Saxons rule America “from abroad” and are now trying to control Russia, that Armenia is under Soros occupation, and that agents of Soros are destroying Armenian statehood, that Armenia is under Anglo-American occupation, and that Open Society Foundations-Armenia, as well as dozens of other foundations and NGOs in Armenia, are serving foreign agendas aimed at the collapse of Armenian statehood, Armenia is occupied by foreign agent network.

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Disproof

An unfounded conspiracy theory and pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in China, in the city of Wuhan on December 31. On that day, China alerted the WHO about several cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause. Some of those infected worked at the city's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which is believed to be the place where the new disease originated. Very quickly, the number of those infected rose to over 40. On January 13, the coronavirus was confirmed in Thailand, in Japan on January 16 and in North Korea and the United States on January 20. In Japan, the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture who had travelled to Wuhan at the beginning of January. The first case in Italy was confirmed on January 30, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus. A week later the third case was confirmed in an Italian man who was repatriated back to Italy from Wuhan.

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Disproof

Conspiracy theory about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus. There is no evidence to suggest that the virus is being used as a weapon against other states or that is has been fabricated inside laboratories. The expert scientific consensus holds that the coronavirus has natural origins; there is no credible evidence supporting claims of laboratory engineering. Apart from the American soldiers, there were in fact 17 teams with over 280 athletes and staff from different countries and nations participating in the Military World Games that was held from October 18-27, 2019 in the capital of Hubei Province in Wuhan. The coronavirus started to spread 65 days after the closing ceremony of the Military World Games, and so far there is no evidence to prove any connection between the two events. The Pentagon has had confirmed cases and is bracing for more to emerge, but “no illnesses have been tied to American service members” in the period that followed the Military World Games. In August 2019, a US Army laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland that studies germs and toxins that could be used to threaten the military or public health, and also investigates disease outbreaks as Ebola and smallpox was shut down for a period of time after a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inspection that occurred in June, and was partially reopened in December, and is now back up running and helping in the fight against COVID-19. The suspension was due to multiple causes, including failure to follow local procedures and a lack of periodic recertification training for workers in the biocontainment laboratories. The wastewater decontamination system of the lab also failed to meet standards set by the Federal Select Agent Programme. Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman, ensured that “there has been no threat to public health, no injuries to employees" and "the leaks were within the lab and not to the outside world".