Muammar Gaddafi predicted the current coronavirus pandemic, and warned it would be created by the same people who would then sell  the “antidotes.”
As the world struggles to bring the new coronavirus pandemic under control, claims that the outbreak was predicted by famous individuals are doing the rounds on social media., We’ve debunked a claim suggesting author Dean Koontz foretold the pandemic as far back as 1981. We’ve verified another that said Bill Gates warned us in 2015 about the coronavirus pandemic., Now the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has entered the fray. A graphic showing Gaddafi is being shared on Facebook and Twitter, with text quoting him as saying: “They will create the virus themselves and they will sell the antidotes afterwards, pretending to take their time to find the solution when they already have it.”, We checked if there was any evidence that Gaddafi said these words., The photo of Gaddafi is real and was taken during his speech at the United Nations general assembly in September 2009. Gaddafi spoke for an hour and 40 minutes, six times longer than his allotted slot. About 87 minutes in, he spoke about viruses., “Today there is swine flu. Perhaps tomorrow there will be fish flu, because sometimes we produce viruses by controlling them. It is a commercial business. Capitalist companies produce viruses so that they can generate and sell vaccinations. That is very shameful and poor ethics. Vaccinations and medicine should not be sold,” he said., He went on to say that “medicines should be free of charge and vaccinations given free to children, but capitalist companies produce the viruses and vaccinations and want to make a profit. Why are they not free of charge? We should give them free of charge, and not sell them.”, So yes, Gaddafi did speculate about the creation of viruses and express his concern about the sale of vaccines. But he did not specifically say “they will create the virus themselves and they will sell the antidotes afterwards, pretending to take their time to find the solution when they already have it”., Written transcripts of the speech also do not contain this quote. And there are no credible reports to suggest Gadaffi said this at any other time., The quote likely comes from someone’s personal interpretation of Gaddafi’s speech, now being shared online as though it reflects Gaddafi’s exact words. – Africa Check, , "A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”. What should you do? First, dont delete!", Click on our guide for the steps you should follow., Publishers guide, Africa Check is a partner in Facebook’s third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media., The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it., You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how., Africa Check is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers fighting misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic., Learn more about the alliance here., , © Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines.\xa0You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page., We depend on voluntary donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project., Find out more, For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results., , Get a weekly dose of facts, straight to your inbox.
No, Gaddafi didn’t predict coronavirus, but did talk about viruses and vaccines | Africa Check