Bill Gates vaccination TedTalk hasn't been 'scrubbed'

George Driver November 06, 2024
f1aff376 27f5 4c08 97c7 c687e7fef0c9
Mr Gates says people who know their children are likely to survive tend to have fewer children.

WHAT WAS CLAIMED

A Bill Gates video promoting vaccines to reduce population growth was “scrubbed from the internet”.

OUR VERDICT

False. The video is widely available online and Mr Gates' words have been misrepresented.

AAP FACTCHECK -  A video of Bill Gates promoting vaccines as a way of tempering global population growth by improving healthcare has not been "utterly scrubbed from the internet", despite claims on social media.

The false claim has been shared widely on social media in recent years, including in an Instagram post that states: "I FINALLY FOUND THE VIDEO OF BILL GATES ADMITTING IT".

"This clip has been utterly scrubbed from the internet, even the original TED Talk. Save it". 

Contrary to claims, Bill Gates' Ted talk is still widely available online. (AAP/Instagram)

The post includes a clip taken from a 2010 TedTalk by Bill Gates where he discusses reducing carbon emissions. 

The original TedTalk video shows Mr Gates saying (four minutes 36 seconds) that part of achieving net zero involves reducing global population growth, which he says is set to increase from 6.8 billion to about nine billion people.

"Now if we do a great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 per cent," Mr Gates says, referring to slowing population growth in future, not reducing the current population.

But the Instagram video plays that section of the TedTalk then cuts to a man claiming Mr Gates' comments show he supposedly intends to kill people via vaccination.

"Well common sense would tell you that if you have a man standing in front of you saying he's going to reduce the world's population by 10 or 15 per cent using vaccines, what does that mean to you?" the man claims.

"It means somebody's going to die because you put a vaccine in them. It doesn't mean you're going to save people."

Despite the claim in the post, Mr Gates' TedTalk is readily available both on the TedTalk's website and YouTube, where it has millions of views.

Mr Gates focuses on vaccination campaigns to reduce death rates. (EPA PHOTO)

The Instagram clip has been taken from a widely discredited 2022 anti-vaccination documentary called Died Suddenly.

The documentary includes multiple false claims previously debunked by Science Feedback, Associated Press, ABC, BBC, AFP, PolitiFact and