The strange story behind notorious disinformation video

‘Plandemic’ criticized for bolstering irrational fantasies, pseudo-science

When filmmaker Mikki Willis uploaded a 26-minute video called “Plandemic” to the internet on May 4, he knew it was likely to cause a stir.

But Willis didn’t bank on becoming the poster boy for coronavirus disinformation. In his mind, he was just a dad in Ojai, Calif., making low-budget inspirational movies out of his house.

The closest he’d ever come to viral fame was when he posted a video in 2015 to his YouTube channel about how he’d bought his young son a “Little Mermaid” doll at the toy store — a moment of open-minded, nongender-conforming parenting that earned him more than four million views and a laudatory spot on the local news.

If you haven’t seen “Plandemic,” picture the sort of ominous conspiracy theory video that would pop up on your paranoid uncle’s Facebook feed or in the darkest recesses of Reddit, then stir in the worst global health crisis in a century.

Slickly produced and shot through with brooding music and black-and-white shots of people walking in slow motion, “Plandemic” centres on Willis’s interview with a former molecular biologist named Judy Mikovits, who alleges that a shadowy cabal of scientists and business interests, including Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci, is leveraging the coronavirus crisis to boost their own power and profits.

Presented uncritically as a courageous whistleblower, Mikovits lobs a string of unsubstantiated claims, including that the virus was developed in laboratories in China and the U.S., that health officials are deliberately inflating COVID-19 statistics and, most dangerously, that wearing a mask could increase one’s chances of “getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expression.”

“Plandemic,” which was billed as the first instalment in a larger documentary to be released this summer, quickly racked up more than eight million views.

On May 6, in an effort to tamp down the spread of COVID-19 misinformation, YouTube and Facebook pulled down Willis’s video. “Suggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm so we’ve removed the video,” a Facebook representative said.

“Plandemic” was lambasted as the latest manifestation of a toxic internet fever swamp that breeds irrational fantasies and rampant pseudo-science. But community spread had already set in.

In recent days, “Plandemic” has continued to circulate among a receptive group of vaccine skeptics, right-wing media and conspiracy theorists of every stripe.

“We made the video to go viral,” Willis said over FaceTime earlier this week. “We knew the branding was conspiratorial and shocking. Unfortunately, in this age, you kind of have to be that to get people’s attention.”

Since the video’s release, Mikovits’ checkered history in the scientific community has been widely reported and her claims have been extensively debunked, while Willis himself has faced a barrage of intense criticism. But the 52-year-old filmmaker sounded unbowed.

“I have been out front enough and public enough to know that when you say anything controversial, especially on any of these hot-button subjects, you have to be willing to take the heat,” he said.

Following the controversy, Willis says he has been in contact with numerous doctors, some strongly disputing Mikovits’ views and others lending them credence. He plans to release a response video to present a fuller picture of Mikovits and the science she presents.

Despite what many assume, Willis insists he is not a member of “the anti-vaccine crowd.” “I have a profound love and respect of doctors despite how many doctors are mad at me now,” he said.

Though many have speculated about the forces behind “Plandemic,” Willis says he paid for the film himself and was motivated by his own worries about vaccine safety and what he sees as the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry, concerns he traces back to the deaths of his brother from AIDS and his mother from cancer when he was in his 20s, which he believes were hastened by harmful medical treatments.

Willis says he met Mikovits, who has a high profile in the anti-vaccine movement, a year ago through mutual friends and was impressed by her. When news surrounding the pandemic began to grow increasingly alarming, he felt “there were just so many things that didn’t add up.” He reached out to Mikovits to get her scientific opinion and ended up asking her if she would do a sit-down interview. (Mikovits did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)

Willis’ own filmography has been all over the map. He made his feature debut in 2000 with the low-budget indie comedy “Shoe Shine Boys,” which the LA Times praised as “an acid comment on the all-American hunger for fame.” He has worked on yoga and meditation videos and, according to IMDB, co-directed a concert movie for DJ Steve Aoki.

In the wake of the release of “Plandemic,” Willis says he was contacted by — and rebuffed — an independent producer who has made projects with HBO, Netflix and Amazon about a potential deal to try to release the project on one of those platforms. Individuals familiar with the acquisition pipeline at HBO and Amazon said that the companies had not expressed interest in the film.

At this point, Willis says he is unsure if he will