A post is doing rounds on social media which claims that French economist Jacques Attali who served as a counselor to President François Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991 proposed that COVID-19 is a man-made created pandemic aimed at world depopulation. Let us now verify the claims made in the post.
Claim: Jacques Attali wrote about depopulation through pandemics in his 1981 book Verbatim.
Fact: Jacques Attali has not written the above mentioned quote anywhere in his memoir Verbatim and the quote is completely fabricated. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Jacques Attali is a noted French economist, social theorist, political adviser among other things and served as a counselor to President Francois Mitterrand from 1981-1991. He was also the first head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1991-1993. His memoir book ‘Verbatim’ (1981-1986) is a collection of his memories, dialogues and routine activities. He has authored more than 50 books.
The post claims that the new world order would focus on world’s depopulation; not through executions or concentration camps but through man-made pandemic that will eliminate the old, weak and the fearful while ‘stupid’ will seek treatment and walk into the ‘slaughterhouse.’ This quote is now being equated to the coronavirus as a man-made pandemic that would kill the old and the weak while the COVID-19 vaccinations would kill stupid people.
However, the quote read in the above post does not appear anywhere in his memoir book Verbatim, which has conversations between President Mitterrand and the world leaders. In fact, the word pandemic does not appear anywhere in the entire book. Similar fact-checks have been done by Snopes, AFP Factual and Poynter.
His other book, “The future of Life” written in French & authored by Michael Salomon is a collection of interviews with Jacques Attali, cites a conversation on old age. According to AFP Factual, to Salomon’s question of “Is it possible and desirable to live 120 years?”, Attali responds “But as soon as we pass 60/65 years, man lives longer than he produces and then costs society more” and “From the point of in view of society, it is preferable for the human machine to stop abruptly before it gradually deteriorates”. He is also seen to quote in a translation that “Euthanasia will be one of the essential instruments of our future societies in all cases.” However, this has be falsely misinterpreted that promotes euthanasia from the age of 65; a depopulation measure. In fact, Attali earlier in 1984 was accused of being a supporter of the genocide of the old for which he went on to file and win a defamation lawsuit against a medical journal through The Paris Court of Appeals.
On the other hand, the recent COVID-19 which first appeared in China in December 2019, is a type of coronavirus. While older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart and lung problems, diabetes, or cancer, are at higher risk of developing a serious illness, there is no correlation to Attali’s comments on euthanasia.
In summary, the quote in the post has been fabricated and falsely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic & Jacques Attali. It is merely a conspiracy theory, and it is suggested that any information related to COVID-19 must only be accessed through credible health authorities.
