Anonymous “Spartacus” COVID Letter Riddled with Misinformation, Baseless Claims about Global Conspiracy

In the early hours of Monday, September 27, 2021, an anonymous letter purporting to be from a health expert began trending on social media. The so-called “Spartacus” letter, posted here, among other websites of questionable credibility with intrusive pop-ups and spammy ads, contains numerous baseless claims buried within over 40 pages of analysis and citations, and which appears to have been carefully crafted to mask the dubious nature of the letter’s origin and the unfounded nature of many of the author’s allegations. 

Among the baseless allegations are the following: 

1. The COVID pandemic is part of a global conspiracy perpetrated by an international cabal of “Elites” engaged in coordinating a biological attack for the purpose of controlling humanity through “nonsensical acts of healthcare theater.”
2. The COVID vaccines contain previously undisclosed, "mysterious" nanoparticles (debunked here, and here).
3. Vaccines have made the SARS-CoV2 virus more deadly (previously debunked here, and here). 

This letter is being rated as Mostly False, and serves as a useful example of the rhetorical tactic known as the Gish Gallop. By overwhelming the reader with so much information, some of it true or with at least an air of superficial credibility in this case through the use of knowledgeable-sounding medical jargon, perpetrators of the Gish Gallop make it virtually impossible to rebut their arguments point by point. 

As for the claim that a global conspiracy is behind the pandemic, such claims are impossible to adequately refute due to the very secrecy such a conspiracy would require; anyone asserting that the conspiracy does not exist is either 1) in on the plot, or 2) simply uninformed. The notion that so many thousands of scientists, public officials, healthcare workers, etc., could conspire to such ends without risking exposure of evidence of the conspiracy does not stand up to rational scrutiny. Nonetheless, such claims are common among peddlers of COVID misinformation, particularly popular among adherents to the infamous QAnon conspiracy and online message boards, because of the power of the Appeal to Ignorance fallacy. The very lack of evidence against the conspiracy is proof that the conspiracy exists. The letter itself alludes to this phenomenon, stating, “The majority of the public are scientifically illiterate and cannot grasp what any of this even means, thanks to a pathetic educational system that has miseducated them. You would be lucky to find 1 in 100 people who have even the faintest clue what any of this actually means.”

Bafflingly, the author seems to want to have it both ways; COVID-19 is simultaneously worse than reported (airborne droplets cannot be stopped by surgical masks, social distancing should be fifteen feet, not six), and not as bad as reported (mortality rates are much lower than we think because of so many unreported, asymptomatic cases). Our analysis finds these competing assertions to be further evidence of the author’s lack of credibility, and readers are urged to view such anonymous claims with a high degree of skepticism. 

Here are some of the major points of the letter that Newswise has previously Fact Checked:

1) "Vaccines will do more harm than good. The antigen that these vaccines are based on, SARS-CoV- 2 Spike, is a toxic protein. SARS-CoV-2 may have ADE, or antibody-dependent enhancement"

See: https://www.newswise.com/factcheck/the-claim-that-covid-19-vaccines-will-cause-more-severe-disease-through-antibody-dependent-enhancement-is-not-yet-supported/?article_id=742569

2) "There is a vast and appalling criminal conspiracy that directly links both Anthony Fauci and Moderna to the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

See: https://www.newswise.com/articles/does-a-new-study-give-evidence-that-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-lab

3) "Various non-vaccine interventions have been suppressed by both the media and the medical establishment in favor of vaccines and expensive patented drugs."

See: https://www.newswise.com/articles/tthe-jury-is-still-out-on-the-effectiveness-of-ivermectin-in-treating-covid-19-despite-claims-that-it-works-or-that-it-s-useless

4) "Surgical masks do not protect you from aerosols. The virus is too small and the filter media has too large of gaps to filter it out."

See: https://www.newswise.com/articles/contrary-to-online-video-s-claim-masks-are-effective-at-reducing-the-spread-of-covid-19 

One of the letter’s most outrageous, and at times, incoherent claims hinges on the idea that the vaccines are being used to infect people with mysterious, undisclosed nanoparticles consisting of graphene and other substances in an effort to prep the populace for some as-of-yet-unexplained neurological experimentation and even, in theory, mind control. The author writes: 

“Graphene oxide is an anxiolytic. It has been shown to reduce the anxiety of laboratory mice when injected into their brains. Indeed, given SARS-CoV-2 Spike’s propensity to compromise the blood-brain barrier and increase its permeability, it is the perfect protein for preparing brain tissue for extravasation of nanoparticles from the bloodstream and into the brain.”

The author goes on to implicate the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), an Obama-era program to research brain-computer interfaces with applications such as allowing amputees to better control prosthetics through technology. They speculate that such a technology could be used to subdue a population via “read-write capability over neurons, either by stimulating and probing them, or by rendering them especially sensitive to stimulation and probing.” 

The end game of such a program? “Spartacus” makes the logical leap to tyranny. 

“A hacker or other malicious actor may compromise such networks to obtain people’s brain data, and then exploit it for nefarious purposes...altering mood and personality, or perhaps even subjugating someone’s very will, rendering them utterly obedient to authority. This technology would be a tyrant’s wet dream. Imagine soldiers who would shoot their own countrymen without hesitation, or helpless serfs who are satisfied to live in literal dog kennels.” 

While no one can predict with certainty where such technologies as funded by the BRAIN Initiative may eventually lead, it’s hard to view this particular leap as anything other than the stuff of science fiction. Further, the author’s down-the-rabbit-hole speculation leads us to a world where, “Someone who is involuntarily celibate could have their libido disabled so they don’t even desire sex to begin with. Someone who is racist could be forced to feel delight over cohabiting with people of other races. Someone who is violent could be forced to be meek and submissive. These things might sound good to you if you are a tyrant, but to normal people, the idea of personal autonomy being overridden to such a degree is appalling.”

The invocation of Involuntary Celibacy, a pet issue of QAnon conspiracy theorists, is a giant red flag, as well as the spectre (presumably undesirable, to the author) of race mixing, and a population subdued, unable to resort to violence to resist. Whether the author references these hot-button topics as a subtextual signal to online communities of InCels, White Supremacists, and violent extremism, or whether they truly believe this is a potential outcome, is unknown. However, the inclusion of these dog-whistles further degrades the credibility of the author and their arguments.

This is a developing story and further details and expert commentary will be added and updated as they become available.