Table of Contents
USA Today's Misinformation
On September 11, USA Today published an article with a headline declaring, “Fact check: Fauci, Gates, Epstein and Soros have no ties to drug company Moderna”.
But that headline was false.
Both Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and member of the White House coronavirus task force, and Bill Gates do have ties to Moderna, a pharmaceutical company developing a COVID-19 vaccine using mRNA technology.
The article does rightly identify misinformation presented in a video widely shared on social media.
With respect to Fauci, USA Today notes that the video’s claim that Fauci was the first CEO of Moderna is false. Nevertheless, Fauci does have ties to Moderna.
Similarly, the article notes that the video’s claim that Fauci and Gates were college roommates is false. But Gates, too, nevertheless does have direct ties to Moderna.
In fact, USA Today contradicts its own headline by acknowledging that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “is listed as one of Moderna’s collaborators” on the company’s page at the investor website Flagship Pioneering.
The closest connection USA Today acknowledges with Fauci is his having been “a co-reviewer of a vaccine platform Moderna is working to improve”, as indicated by a 2019 Shareholder Letter. This refers to a review of vaccine technologies Fauci coauthored that was published last year in the journal Nature Reviews Immunology.
Although USA Today doesn’t mention it, the same letter, under the subheading “Partnerships”, mentions having $187 million in funding from grants, with a footnote reference. The footnote specifies that the grants are from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
BARDA operates under the Department of Health and Human Services. DARPA is a research and development agency of the Department of Defense.
That both Fauci and Gates have close ties to Moderna is no secret. Having encountered the headline in a news feed, I knew it was false and so did a quick Google search to document its falsity. It took about ten seconds to fact check USA Today’s “Fact Check”.
My search immediately turned up a page published in March on the website of the NIAID, which operates under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announcing the beginning of a phase one clinical trial for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. The webpage notes that Fauci’s NIAID is “funding the trial.”
Furthermore, Moderna’s candidate vaccine “was developed by NIAID scientists and their collaborators” at Moderna.
The page quotes Fauci saying that the trial was “an important step” toward developing “a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2”.
Similarly, I was able to immediately pull up a page from Moderna’s website listing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a “strategic collaborator”, with the foundation having “entered a global health project framework agreement” in January 2016 “to advance mRNA-based development projects for various infectious disases.”
I emailed the author and the corrections editor on September 13 to request that they correct their false headline and acknowledge the NIAID’s partnership with Moderna, in accordance with USA Today’s code of ethics.
I also pointed out that, even if they were unaware of that partnership, since the collaboration between the Gates Foundation and Moderna is acknowledged in the article, they knew that their headline was false. I also noted the hypocrisy of fact checking others while willfully misinforming the public themselves.
Two days later, I received a reply from the author, Chelsey Cox, thanking me for my comments but sticking to the headline with the reasoning that “The headline reflects the analysis of the claim subject to fact-checking.”
I replied, “It does not follow that since the claims about Fauci and Gates subject to fact-checking are false that therefore they have ‘no ties’ to Moderna. That is a non sequitur fallacy. Indeed, you point out yourself in the article that Gates does have ties to Moderna, his foundation being partnered with the company. The headline is false and should, by USA Today’s own ethical guidelines, be corrected.”
She responded later that day to let me know that she’d gotten an editor’s approval to change the headline, which now reads, “Fact check: Moderna post makes false claims about Fauci, Gates, Soros, Epstein”. (That’s also not a great title since it makes it sounds as though Moderna itself was spreading the misinformation, but at least the false claim about Fauci and Gates having “no ties” to Moderna was removed.)
USA Today did not publish an acknowledgement of the error and did not update the article to acknowledge that Fauci, like Gates, is partnered with Moderna in the development of its COVID-19 vaccine.
A really pertinent article.
Who would have thought that, even after having been corrected, USA Today would simply persist in maintaining its false claims?
What a disgusting news provider this has become, while still claiming its name: USA Today?
It seems to me that using this name is no longer a guarantee of quality, or even mediocrity.
Apparently the owner of the USA Today publication does not have any idea what integrity means.
Jeremy: thanks again! Keep em accountable. Your my go to researcher/ writer.
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Thank you, Jeremy!!! What an epic article that is factual! Thank you for exposing lies!! I am very grateful for you!!
Thanks, Shari.
This new patent, WOWO2020060606 (published as WO/2020/060606) has conspiracy theorists buzzing. As this news makes the rounds online, people are referring to it as “Patent 666”, or “World Order 2020, 666”. The going argument is not only did Bill Gates and Microsoft conspire to unleash COVID-19, but they’re also going to step in with the “cure”. They’ll have a hand in a vaccine that everyone will willfully take to be rid of coronavirus fears, but it will secretly microchip them, allowing Gates and Co. to track everyone. Since the title on the patent clearly reads “CRYPTOCURRENCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA” this is evidence that Bill’s plans, the microchip theory, and the planned release of COVID-19 are all very real.
Considering our English Prime Minister Boris Johnson is buying this vaccine from Moderna by the millions and Gates wants to micochip the world popluation, he will take full opportunity to do so, all becoming extremely scary. We have to warn everyone of this danger.
Thank you, Jeremy, for persisting that USA Today correct their inaccuracies and calling them out on their B.S.! Bravo!
Just as the false claims about Iraq’s intent to destroy humanity resulted in the invasion and destruction of an entire country, killing thousand of civilians by those who wanted to “save humanity” while reporters, not linked to the military, who documented crimes committed by the military were simply treated as traitors or incarcerated.
The so called dangerous virus, resulting in many deaths, must not be closely investigated. It must be accepted as is (for whatever that is.) Any one who questions the validity of the research is ridiculed and treated as imbecile. Fact checking is allowed only as long as some facts are ignored that do not go in the right direction supporting the claims of Gates et al.
I know those people in the above picture know no shame, but I still find it impossible to understand.
Thank you again Jeremy! This, if anything, is a David and Goliath dilemma. Having said that, through your research, I am gaining confidence and whole-heartedly stand with you and the growing numbers of truth tellers here and abroad.
Have you seen “Focus on Fauci”? I feel this will be devastating to deeply corrupted American corporatized political structure.
I haven’t seen it. For anyone else interested, I found this link to view:
https://earthheroestv.com/programs/special-free-live-broadcast-5th-jan-2021-focus-on-fauci-46120-a90064
I recently saw a short video clip of someone taking the swap from a Covid-19 test kit apart. Also comparing it to a Q-Tip cotton swab. The test swab filament she held in the tweezers was silvery and several strands were actually moving. What’s that about?
Bravo Sir Bravo!!! This is the best article I have read thus far and I will be spreading it far and wide!!! God Bless You and everything you stand for!!!
Thank you!
Excellent reporting !!!!
I would like to see YOU every night delivering the prime time news….
If you show up, I will start watching again
Thank you! I couldn’t ever be a talking head on TV news, though, working for a corporation. Writing independently is my thing.
Yes! I would as well! It would be refreshing hearing from a true, unbiased journalist.
Wow! What an excellent article! You really went deep and dug with your investigative journalism, well done!
As someone who was trained in Journalism in college, I have great respect for “real journalism”, something that is very hard to find these days!
Thank you! Actually, the thing about this one is that I didn’t have to dig deep at all to show how the USA Today article was misinforming readers. A few quick Google searches was sufficient to find information proving that the claim Fauci and Gates have no ties to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers is false!
Who trusts fact checkers, government, social media, etc?
All too many people, unfortunately.
There was a time citizens felt obligated to learn as much about diseases and medications to be personally informed. In today’s society the opposite is true anything heard watched or read becomes fact and is accepted as truth. We all need to view media hype as questionable and make every effort to learn the actual facts!
EVERONE NEEDS to hear what this vaccine scientist has to say, he has just put his career on the line. http://bit.ly/GeertV
The adherence to facts is only one aspect of the struggle people face, and I agree that the USA T article does cross the line. It matter-of-factly describes no association between Gates and Fauci with Moderna whatsoever, which we know isn’t entirely true. It does however toe the line that there’s no hand-in-glove relationship there either. It’s not for anyone to fill in the gaps, even with innuendo, for what isn’t known as concrete fact. The thin end of the wedge is always going to be the delivery of the slope depending on the individual who processes the facts as they laid out for consumption.
Does there necessarily have to be a “hand in glove” relationship for these people to be collaborating? I don’t think so, in fact they probably go out of their way to keep their associations vague, especially now. It IS for us to “fill the gaps” and dig deeper. Every author, because we are human, will put their mark on what they write about, it is inevitable, but Mr. Hammond does a good job of presenting what few want to discuss. We are being manipulated – at every turn and at the highest level.
You’re right, there doesn’t necessarily need to be an open partnership for these actors to be collaborating. But the fact that in this case there is highlights the total ineptitude and duplicitousness of the mainstream media, illustrating how they do policy advocacy rather than journalism, serving a propaganda function.
Thankyou for this very valuable information. Thankyou for fact checking…. for spreading truth!
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Of course! They funded the media and the so-called ‘fact checkers’ too. Plenty of censorship on social media as well.
Do you know how I came to your website? I had to use DuckDuckGo as the search engine. The search terms: ‘Bill Gates Moderna’. Nothing showed up on Google.
Big tech has already sold out… but I get the feeling I’m preaching to the choir here.
It’s not just a American thing, it’s the same script played out all over the world.
Yes, I’ve noticed my site shows up for various searches in Duck Duck Go but no longer so much in Google.
Thank you. This is one of the best articles on misinformation that I have found, if not the best. Excellent writing, so well thought out and presented.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
What do you think of this? https://commonground.ca/where-covid-came-from-and-who-funded-its-creation-follow-the-patents-and-the-money/
He provides no sources for any of his claims, like his claim that “In 2002 the weaponization of corona virus was complete” and suggestion that SARS was a lab creation. I’ve investigated numerous of his claims from various interviews and each time found that he was mischaracterizing the documents he was citing to support his claims. I find him untrustworthy.
Google deleted my account for posting a link to a government website re: NCVIA on YouTube.
I can’t help but wonder if it’s because Alphabet/Google/YouTube is conspiring with Vaccitech in the creation of the next “safe & effective” mandatory vaccine.
Google has been aligned with the government and Big Pharma from the start, helping to censor any information, no matter how factual, that doesn’t align with the mass vaccination agenda.
The not-for-profit Gates Foundation is a “collaborator” with Moderna. This is somehow supposed to mean that Bill Gates profited from the foundation’s providing funding for and probably some expertise in development of mRNA vaccine. The fact that the Institute in NIH that was headed by Dr. Fauci provided support for Moderna in vaccine development is apparently to lead us to believe that Fauci personally profited from that support. The “how” is not presented. Ragged journalism@!
Dude, the “ragged journalism” in this case was from USA Today, whose errors I corrected by accurately reporting how both Fauci and Gates do have ties to Moderna. I identified the errors in USA Today’s reporting, and you haven’t identified any errors in mine.