Does a 2009 television show prove the COVID-19 pandemic was planned? No, that's not true: There is no evidence presented in the nearly three-minute clip from the "Secret Societies" episode of the truTV show "Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura" that proves the epidemic was planned by the global elite to reduce the world's surplus population.
The claims appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on April 18, 2022, under the title "Proof." It opens:
PROOF OF THE PLANDEMIC
THIS SHOW AIRED IN 2009
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Apr 21 17:19:42 2022 UTC)
Although the clip is under three minutes in length, it features a who's who of folks in the conspiracy theory world, including Alex Jones of InfoWars; Dr. Rima Laibow, a psychiatrist; and TV host and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. The video starts with Ventura interviewing Jones:
[Jones:] We're seeing a medical tyranny being set up, not just in the United States, but worldwide under the U.N. [United Nations] and the World Health Organization.
[Ventura:] Who's behind all this?
[Jones:] The Bilderberg Group. They want a planetary dictatorship so they can carry out their forced depopulation agenda. And they want to do it through the medical system. And that's why vaccines are so important. We know that many of these vaccines turn out to have serious adverse reactions and this is being done by design. They kill you slowly over time. That's why they're called 'soft kill.'
And I've got an insider I think you should really talk to -- Dr. Rima Laibow. But she doesn't live inside the United States because she's so concerned about all the police state developments that are taking place. But if you can get her to come up here and talk to you, she's a medical doctor, she's treated heads of states and she really understands what's happening on the inside.
Within days, a narrator says, Ventura and Laibow are meeting at an undisclosed airstrip in the United States. Laibow says she can only stay a short time for the interview before fleeing the country again for her protection. The interview starts at 1:38 in the video:
[Ventura:] Now, you've left the United States of America.
[Laibow:] Yes, sir, I have.
[Ventura:] Why?
[Laibow:] I do not feel safe living in the United States. ... As soon as you and I finish, I'm leaving the country again. Why? Because in a very short time -- not today, not tomorrow, but very soon -- we'll be facing compulsory vaccination under the mistaken term of 'voluntary vaccination.'
[Ventura:] What is it about these vaccinations? You think that they're bad?
[Laibow:] First of all, let's start with the fact that the World Health Organization [WHO] has decided that we have 90 percent too many people. The World Health Organization has been working since 1974 on vaccines to create permanent sterility.
[Ventura:] Doctor, the response is going to be, 'You're crazy, how can you say this stuff?'
[Laibow:] I show them the documentation.
But that's where the clip ends. No evidence is presented. The notion of the health agency wanting to reduce the world's population by billions of people goes against its stated goals on the WHO website:
WHO works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.
Our goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.
In late December 2021, Laibow and her business partner, retired attorney Ralph Fucetola, who calls himself "the vitamin lawyer," were banned by a federal court "from distributing unapproved and misbranded drugs touted as a treatment for COVID-19."
Old school is new again
Although it's old, the Facebook video plays into a greater QAnon conspiracy theory of global satanic elites and their plans for the world.
Lead Stories has debunked multiple claims made by QAnon supporters including these here and here.
