In September, 2021, Dr. Michael McDowell, from Trinidad and Tobago, claimed in an almost thirty-minute-long feature interview on television that HIV/AIDS and Ebola were manufactured as biological weapons by the US government to commit genocide. He went on to claim that COVID-19 vaccines are also biological weapons and that vaccines offer no protection against COVID-19, instead contributing to the emergence of new variants.
The problem is that the well-spoken Michael McDowell is not a medical doctor at all, but an evangelic priest. He is not a scientist or a certified medical professional in any capacity. McDowell appears to hold a doctorate, but it is in theology, and from an unclear or unstated university. The television channel McDowell is being interviewed on, called TT Response, is also not a national or local television station but a media arm belonging to a ministry he is affiliated with called the Redemption Christian Centre. The centre’s stated goal is to “take the written and living Word of God to a hurting and dying world. Thus giving hope, healing, and empowerment to humanity. Enabling them to overcome the evils of this age.”
The Redemption Christian Centre’s interviews, made to look similar to legitimate national live television broadcasts, appear to promote evangelical Christianity, rather than objective medical advice.
With that said, let’s examine two of McDowell’s most significant claims: his statements about HIV/AIDS and Ebola and COVID-19 vaccines.
HIV/AIDS and Ebola
Regarding HIV/AIDS and Ebola, McDowell cites the works of a particular Leonard Horowitz. McDowell claims that Horowitz is a “virologist and vaccinologist” who “proved” that HIV/AIDS/Ebola are manufactured: artificially and purposefully created by people in laboratories. He also states that Horowitz’s supposed research has “stood the test of time and never been refuted.” The problem with this claim is that Horowitz is not a virologist or vaccinologist, but a former dentist whose claims have actually been widely discredited.
Horowitz’s notoriety in the alternative medicine community stems from a book called Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola: Nature, Accident, or Intentional? Horowitz published this book in 1996 through Medical Veritas International, an organisation whose Editor-in-Chief is none other than Horowitz himself. This strongly suggests the book was self-published, a process that generally lacks a robust and independent editorial process.
It’s true that pinpointing the exact origin of HIV/AIDS with 100% certainty is likely an impossible task, and that until this day, the origin of HIV/AIDS remains unsolved. Still, this shouldn’t be a license to spread conspiracy or pseudoscience – the general medical consensus is that HIV/AIDS is a zoonotic, natural virus originating in non-human primates in West-Central Africa that leaped to humans sometime in the early 20th century. HIV/AIDS and Ebola are not made in a laboratory by governments or elites with ill intentions of world domination.
Inconveniently for people like Horowitz and McDowell, evidence also strongly suggests that the “HIV/AIDS Bioweapon Theory” originated in a Soviet Union disinformation campaign conducted by the KGB in the 1980s called Operation INFEKTION. The goal of this operation was to undermine American credibility, isolate the United States, and create tensions between the U.S. and countries that host American military bases. The Soviet Union and the KGB were formally dissolved in 1991, and despite failing to undermine American foreign affairs, Operation INFEKTION appears to have partly succeeded in undermining science, creating loyal adherents like McDowell and Horowitz who continue to promote conspiracies well into 2022 and beyond.
COVID-19 and Vaccines
Regrettably, none of the above has stopped McDowell from his assertions. The second claim McDowell makes is that similar to HIV/AIDS and Ebola, COVID-19 and the vaccines created to fight it are bioweapons created in a lab. To back up his theory, McDowell credits and cites the supposed research of Dr. Francis Boyle, a person he claims is an international law expert and “an expert in genetic bioweapons.” Throughout the interview, McDowell forcefully promotes Boyle’s claim that COVID-19 is “a tripartite chimera” composed of an “original SARS virus enhanced with gain-of-function properties, and then genetically recombined with HIV/AIDS.” This would be explosive news — if it were true.
Dr. Francis Boyle is indeed an international law expert, and like McDowell, Boyle also holds a doctorate – from Harvard, no less. Also like McDowell, his degree is not in medicine or biology but in law.
Boyle has claimed that “Israeli intelligence was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; that SARS, the swine flu and Ebola have been genetically modified; and that West Nile virus and Lyme disease escaped from a U.S. biowarfare lab. He has also claimed that Microsoft founder Bill Gates ‘was involved’ in the spread of Zika”.
Just like HIV/AIDS and Ebola, the general scientific consensus here is that COVID-19 is also a natural, zoonotic virus. As with most zoonoses, COVID-19 likely made its leap from animal to human, in this case, most likely a bat or pangolin. Like HIV/AIDS and Ebola, it is also not made in a laboratory. The World Health Organization (WHO) agrees. Although not without controversy, after a visit to the center of the outbreak in China in 2021, a World Health Organization team concluded that it’s improbable COVID-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab and that the virus showed no signs of genetic manipulation. Sadly, even Ivy League professors like Boyle are not immune to viral conspiracy theories.
Recently, McDowell’s interview was picked up by viewers in China, and his anti-vaccine video now comes complete with Chinese subtitles. It’s uncertain why McDowell’s video has gained traction in China, but China’s pushing of COVID-19 disinformation may be a factor. Some in the Chinese-speaking community must have noticed this, resulting in a Chinese-language skeptics website publishing an article that systematically debunks McDowell’s claims.
On the bright side, Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Health seems to have managed a relatively successful vaccination campaign, despite efforts by those like McDowell to thwart it. Current data points toward 51.11% of its population being fully vaccinated. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.
As of writing, McDowell’s YouTube page has around 4.69 thousand followers. Although not a massive audience, just like zoonoses, we will never know when viral pseudoscientific claims might make the digitally zoonotic leap from fringe to mainstream. The best defense? A free and easy prescription of common sense and a healthy dose of skepticism.
