US

FACT CHECK: Has Bill Gates ‘Refused To Vaccinate His Children’?

No featured image available

An image shared on Facebook claims the former doctor of Bill Gates said the Microsoft co-founder “refused to vaccinate his children.”

Verdict: False

Melinda Gates has confirmed that her children are “fully vaccinated.” The claims stemmed from a website known for publishing misinformation.

Fact Check:

Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world and gives generously to charity. He and his wife also founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which, among other things, promotes access to vaccinations around the world.

Multiple Facebook users have claimed that Bill Gates’s former doctor said the billionaire did not vaccinate his own children. One such post includes a screen grab of a 2018 article from the now-defunct Locks News Network that puts up the headline “Bill Gates’ Former Doctor Says Billionaire ‘Refused To Vaccinate His Children.'”

That article, however, is incorrect. In an internet search, the Daily Caller News Foundation found no credible news reporting to corroborate the claim, only news outlets debunking it.

Melinda Gates posted on her verified Facebook account in April 2019 that all three of her children have been “fully vaccinated.”

“All three of my children are fully vaccinated,” she wrote. “Vaccines work. And when fewer people decide to get them, we all become more vulnerable to disease. As World Immunization Week approaches, let’s listen to science, have honest conversations with each other, and act to protect our children.”

The claim started circulating widely online in 2018 after YourNewsWire, a news website known for sharing misinformation, published a similar article in February of that year, per PolitiFact. YourNewsWire now goes by NewsPunch, and the article is not available on NewsPunch’s new website.

“Our editorial standards have changed significantly since we moved to NewsPunch.com in late 2018,” Sean Adl-Tabatabai, the editor-in-chief of the publication, told The Associated Press. “The story was originally published on YourNewsWire.com — the claims made in the article were copied from a blog elsewhere on the web. Since it came to light that the claims we had copied were unreliable and likely false, we removed the story from YourNewsWire and didn’t republish on our new site.”