Viewpoint: Daily Wire’s Candace Owens rolls out ludicrous conspiracy diatribe vilifying mainstream media, COVID vaccines and Bill Gates’ biotechnology advocacy

“This is a headline in Evie magazine. The World Economic Forum wants to make you allergic to beef and Bill Gates as the mosquitoes to do it. I want to be very clear here. The mainstream media tells us that Bill Gates is a good guy, and so it must be true. So what if his name seems to be in the middle of a bunch of medical scandals? So what if various countries have accused him of crimes against humanity? So what if so many people actually believe that he is harming people via his vaccine incentives?” [Candace Owens said on the September 22, 2022, edition of The Daily Wire.]

[Reuter’s fact check:] “His investments in genetically modified (GMO) mosquitos relate to the foundation’s goals of ending poverty, disease and inequality around the world (www.gatesfoundation.org/). Oxitec, a British biotechnology company (www.oxitec.com), has released genetically modified mosquitoes with a self-limiting gene in Brazil (here), the Cayman Islands (here), Panama (here) and the United States (here).

These insects mate with female Aedes aegypti mosquitos that carry dangerous diseases like yellow fever, dengue, and the Zira virus, and in so doing stop their offspring surviving into adulthood (here). Critics have raised concerns that GMO mosquitos could damage eco-systems (here), but Gates has defended the technologies as a powerful tool against disease (here and here).

Meanwhile, the mention of “fake meat” likely refers to Gates’ advocacy for switching meat to synthetics to avoid a climate disaster (tcrn.ch/3tAl6qk, here).”

As Media Matters has previously noted, Gates absolutely deserves scrutiny for his actions. That criticism should be grounded in fact and evidence, not conspiracy theories.

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