A video through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that his company’s goal was to reduce the world’s population by 50% by 2023. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Pfizer CEO saying that he wants to reduce world population by half by 2023.
Fact: The viral video had been edited from an original video where Pfizer CEO spoke about his team’s dream of reducing the number of people who cannot afford their medicines. In the viral video, the words, “that cannot afford our medicines” have been cut out. Recently, Pfizer had launched an initiative named ‘An Accord for a healthier world’ to provide patent-protected medicines to 45 lower-income countries. Pfizer CEO also revealed this in his conversation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In the conversation, Pfizer CEO spoke about one of his dreams of reducing the number of people who cannot afford the medicines by 50%, by 2023, which he thinks is going to be a reality. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found on YouTube. The YouTube video is from a conversation that Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, had, at the Davos summit by World Economic Forum. The video had been cut at 2:33 timeframe to make this 38-second viral clip out of it. However, some part of the YouTube video had been edited to make this viral video.
In the YouTube video, Albert Bourla says, “…by 2023, we will reduce the number of people in the world that cannot afford our medicines by 50%, I think, today this dream is becoming reality.” In the viral video, the words, “that cannot afford our medicines” have been cut out.
Pfizer had launched an initiative named ‘An Accord for a healthier world’ to provide patent-protected medicines to 45 lower-income countries. Pfizer CEO also revealed this in his conversation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In the conversation, Pfizer CEO spoke about one of his dreams of reducing the number of people who cannot afford the medicines by 50%, by 2023, which he thinks is going to be a reality.
To sum it up, edited video is being shared as Pfizer CEO stating that his goal is to reduce world population by half.
