Does a viral video reveal there is a coronavirus vaccine patent owned by Bill Gates? No, that is not true: A video by Dr. Rashid Buttar claims there is a coronavirus patent owned by a pharmaceutical company that is owned by Bill Gates. There are two patents mentioned in the video, one in the United States and one in Europe, and neither of them are for a vaccine for coronavirus in humans and neither is owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
LeadStories.com previously debunked the claim that Bill Gates is connected to a coronavirus vaccine.
The newest claim appeared as a video published by YouTube on May 6, 2020, titled "[URGENT] Dr Rashid Buttar Reveals that Coronavirus was Patented by Bill Gates in 2006." (archived here) which opened with Buttar saying:
I will show you the actual patents that exposes the coronavirus not only having a patent but having multiple patents and these patents have been filed years ago that got perfected in November of 2019, the month before COVID-19.
The original video posted on YouTube quickly earned 1.3 million views, but the coronavirus vaccine and Bill Gates connections touted in the video are not true. That version has been taken offline by YouTube, but copies were uploaded:
Buttar's videos have gone viral as he claims to have uncovered secrets about the COVID-19 outbreak.
HuffingtonPost.com called him a "widely discredited osteopath," noting that he had been formally reprimanded by the North Carolina Medical Board for unethical conduct and had received a letter of reprimand from the Food and Drug Administration for deceptively advertisiting his supplements as drugs.
He tells his viewers that they are privy to the truth about the coronavirus outbreak.
From what it appears right now, we are the only ones on the entire planet of 7.7 billion people that really have proof of what is truly happening."
Let's break down the claims about the patents in the Buttar video.
Claim: There is a U.S. patent number that was applied for way back in 2006 and is a coronavirus vaccine that was just approved in November 2019, as the COVID-19 outbreak began in China.
The patent number mentioned in the video is 2006257852.
According to a search on the United States Patent and Trademark Office, that patent does not exist.
When you search using Google for patent number 2006257852, a result that shows up is actually for Patent 20060257852 which has an extra "0" in the number.
That patent for "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus" was applied for in 2006 by the company Chiron Corporation, which you can see here.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
Abstract
An outbreak of a virulent respiratory virus, now known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), was identified in Hong Kong, China and a growing number of countries around the world in 2003. The invention relates to nucleic acids and proteins from the SARS coronavirus. These nucleic acids and proteins can be used in the preparation and manufacture of vaccine formulations, diagnostic reagents, kits, etc. The invention also provides methods for treating SARS by administering small molecule antiviral compounds, as well as methods of identifying potent small molecules for the treatment of SARS."
According to Google Patents, the request was "abandoned."
On the video, the captions misspell "Chiron" as "Kyron." Chiron Corporation was purchased by GlaxoSmithKline in 2014.
According to FactCheck.Afp.com, a GlaxoSmithKline company spokesperson said "this patent application was not pursued by GSK," and said: "GSK does not hold any patents relating to antigens for COVID-19 vaccine development."
LeadStories.com reached out to GlaxoSmithKline for comment and will update the story if a response is received.
On the video, Buttar does not specifically say which coronavirus he is focused on.
The second video claim is that a European patent for a coronavirus vaccine is held by a company connected to Bill Gates. This is partially false.
An unidentified "doctor" whose voice is electronically altered refers to EP317231B1 CORONAVIRUS, which is a patent appplication by the Pirbright Institute for a vaccine in poultry, not humans, per the European patent website.
Buttar then shows a screen search of the patent and discusses EP EP3172319A1 CORONAVIRUS , also by Pirbright for a vaccine in poultry, not humans:
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
[0004] Avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), the aetiological agent of infectious bronchitis (IB), is a highly infectious and contagious pathogen of domestic fowl that replicates primarily in the respiratory tract but also in epithelial cells of the gut, kidney and oviduct. IBV is a member of the Order Nidovirales, Family Coronaviridae, Subfamily Coronavirinae and Genus Gammacoronavirus; genetically very similar coronaviruses cause disease in turkeys, guinea fowl and pheasants."
"I wonder who this Pirbright Institute is? Let's look up who Pirbright is," Buttar says in the video.
He shares his screen with a Google search showing the Pirbright Institute Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation link but does not click on the link or say directly that Bill Gates owns the Pirbright Institute.
Buttar ends the video saying: "Interesting, huh?"
The Pirbright Institute researchs animals, not humans and is not owned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates' foundation has given two grants totaling $574,376 to the institute. In November 2019 the Institute announced the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave The Pirbright Institute $5.5 million to establish a "Livestock Antibody Hub aimed at improving animal and human health globally."
The anonymous doctor on the video who dismisses the severity of coronavirus claims the timing of a vaccine patent is suspicious.
"What do you know? It was just granted in November 2019. What perfect timing? All of a sudden, you're going to say here comes the savior with the vaccine. Swoop in and in order for your kids to be able to go back to school, they're going to have to get this coronavirus vaccine that they just all of a sudden came up with. Six years ago."
There is no evidence that a coronavirus vaccine for humans was granted in November 2019.
Both the CDC and the WHO have said there is not a vaccine for COVID-19.
As of May 7, 2020, the death toll from coronavirus in the United States was 76,113.
