After President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill into law last Thursday, there have been rumors about Bill Gates’s involvement in the bill.
Twitter users have been sharing an article from The BL, or “The Beauty of Life,” a media company connected to the right-wing outlet the Epoch Times.” The story from The BL is headlined: “$3.5 billion for Bill Gates’s foundation hidden in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion bill.”
A widely shared tweet, linking to this same article, reads: “Why would Bill Gates get any money from the Covid Stimulus? $3.5 billion for Bill Gates’s foundation hidden in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion bill.”
The Twitter thread continues: “Fauci, Gates, WHO, China, Soros, Obama & Democrats have dirty hands on the Coronavirus.”
The Dispatch Fact Check reached out to a spokesperson for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation via email, who called the headline’s claim “false.”
It is true that within the COVID-19 relief bill, there is a clause that stipulates that no less than $3.5 billion should go to the Global Fund, an international organization aimed at ending AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, to which the Gates foundation recently contributed $2.49 billion and pledged to contribute $760 million for 2020-2022. However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not receive money nor were they named in the bill.
The article claims: “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is described as a ‘key partner’ on Page 613 of the Democrats’ 628-page relief bill, which calls for a donation of ‘not less than $3,500,000,000” to the Global Fund to Combat AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.’”
The COVID relief bill does not name the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, nor does it describe the foundation as a “key partner.” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not receive any money from the COVID-relief bill, as the article falsely claims.
The only mention of any organization related to the Gates Foundation in the bill is a clause related to the Global Fund, which reads as follows: “$3,750,000,000 to be made available to the Department of State to support programs for the prevention, treatment, and control of HIV/AIDS in order to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, including to mitigate the impact on such programs from coronavirus and support recovery from the impacts of the coronavirus, of which not less than $3,500,000,000 shall be for a United States contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.”
Claims that the Gates Foundation received money from the COVD-19 relief bill are false.
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