Is the purpose of COVID-19 vaccines to "kill off a large proportion of the population"? No, there's no evidence that's true: The idea stems from a sprawling conspiracy theory that alternately posits COVID, the vaccines or both as being manufactured with the goal of depopulating Earth.
The claim was made by "Dr. Shankara Chetty" during a video interview (archived here) published on January 11, 2022. Titled "Dr Shankara Chetty calls spike protein 'poison to kill billions globally, without anyone noticing,'" the clip was published by America's Frontline Doctors, an organization known to publicize unfounded and false medical claims. At the 1:22 mark, Chetty said:
Spike protein is one of the most contrived toxins or poisons that man has ever made, and the aim of this toxin is to kill billions without anyone noticing it. So it's a poison with an agenda.
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Dr Shankara Chetty calls spike protein 'poison to kill billions globally, without anyone noticing' | America's Frontline Doctors
'The illogic, the coercion, the suppression is all warranted, if you understand that there is a bigger plan'
Later, at the 6:42 mark, he said:
This plan is to make sure that we can control and kill off a large proportion of our population without anyone suspecting that we were poisoned.
Chetty, identified as a private family practitioner in South Africa, provided no evidence to back up his extraordinary claims, and his comments fall squarely within a well-known and frequently debunked conspiracy theory. The theory has a few variations. In some, elite groups manufactured COVID in order to depopulate Earth; in others, they are merely taking advantage of the pandemic in order to achieve the same goal. Chetty appears to be saying that the vaccine, in particular, is the weapon that elites are wielding.
There's no evidence any of that is true. Lead Stories has debunked the depopulation myth here and here, finding that the vaccines are not "weapons of mass destruction" and that there is no evidence for a COVID "eugenics" plan. Hundreds of millions of COVID vaccines had been administered at the time of publication and there have been no credible reports that the vaccines are deadly to humans.
Additionally, at the 5:49 mark, Chetty claimed that the vaccines have "bits of HIV protein in it." Lead Stories has previously debunked the claim that the vaccines contain HIV. We have also frequently written about America's Frontline Doctors, the organization that published Chetty's interview. See here and here for those stories, in which we found that the group did not prove its claim that masks don't work and that hydroxychloroquine, zinc and Zithromax are not a known cure for COVID.
