As the number of confirmed hantavirus cases from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius reaches 9, social media users firmly revived Covid-19 era conspiracy theories of “bioweapons” and “plandemics,” making the online rhetoric feel eerily familiar. Among these resurrected theories, the name of American billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has once again emerged.
Similar to viral posts in 2020, internet users shared unfounded claims that an episode of The Simpsons “predicted” the hantavirus outbreak years ago, or claimed hantavirus was mentioned in the Epstein Files.
In the same vein, old comments from Bill Gates resurfaced and were heavily shared. In a clip from his 2025 interview on ABC’s ‘The View,’ Gates warned that future pandemics could be worse than the coronavirus, saying: “It won’t be the last pandemic. The next one could be far more severe.”
This triggered viral posts claiming it “proved” Gates was “planning” a pandemic, or that as a top contributor to the World Health Organisation via his foundation - he’s benefiting from a potential pandemic by exploiting health crises, as he tries to make money from mass vaccination.
Not only is Gates far from the only voice who’s warned of vigilance towards new outbreaks, the WHO has remained firm in its assessment that hantavirus is unlikely to become a pandemic at all. The Gates conspiracy theories have been unfounded for 6 years, and remain so, and it’s no surprise to see his name return to the eye of the storm as coronavirus conspiracy theories are rehashed.
Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fake.
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