The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported June 26 that the United States has seen five cases of malaria spread by mosquitoes over the last two months — the first time in 20 years the disease has been locally spread. Soon after, some social media users claimed the cases were connected to billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.
Several social media posts claimed Gates, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, was behind these recent malaria cases because the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has previously funded efforts to reduce the spread of malaria. Gates is a frequent target of online conspiracy theories.
In a July 3 Facebook reel, InfoWars host Harrison Hill Smith says, “What are the odds that we go 20 years without mosquito-borne malaria in the United States, and then a mere year after mosquitoes, genetically modified, are released in Texas and Florida do we have five examples of mosquito-borne malaria in Texas and Florida? Gee, sure does sound like a coincidence.”
This video was also shared June 29 on Instagram with the caption: “Malaria found in U.S. for first time in 20 years. I’m sure Bill Gates had nothing to do with it.” InfoWars is run by Alex Jones, a purveyor of conspiracy theories who has been court-ordered to pay millions to families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victims after he claimed the mass killing was a hoax.
These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
These posts misconstrue the facts around the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s financial support to help eradicate malaria worldwide. Gates’ foundation has not funded research related to mosquitoes or malaria in the U.S.
Malaria in the U.S.
Malaria is a serious and potentially fatal disease transmitted through the bite of a female anopheline mosquito. Ninety-five percent of the more than 240 million malaria cases reported worldwide in 2021 occurred in Africa, the World Health Organization reported. The disease is rare in the U.S.
Over the last two months, the CDC said five cases of locally acquired malaria have been reported in the U.S., four in Sarasota County, Florida, and one in Cameron County, Texas. All five patients have received treatment and are recovering.
The last time locally acquired mosquito-borne malaria occurred was in 2003 in Florida, the CDC said. Most reported malaria cases in the U.S. occur in people who contracted it while traveling internationally. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 2,000 cases of travel-related malaria were reported annually in the U.S.
The CDC said the risk of locally acquired malaria remains “extremely low” in the U.S.
Gates’ funding to combat malaria
A Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spokesperson told PolitiFact the foundation supports efforts to eradicate malaria, but has not funded any work involving mosquito release in the U.S.
The social media posts point to financial support the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave to the biotechnology company Oxitec for its malaria program. The posts claim this money helped Oxitec release genetically modified mosquitoes in the U.S., which led to the recent malaria cases in Florida and Texas.
But the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has not funded Oxitec for any U.S.-based work, Oxitec spokesperson Joshua Van Raalte said. The foundation awarded Oxitec with grants in 2018, 2020 and 2022 to combat malaria in Africa and Central America.
Oxitec does have projects in the U.S. involving mosquitoes, but they are unrelated to malaria, Van Raalte said. The work involves the Aedes aegypti, a type of mosquito that can carry dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever and yellow fever, but not malaria, which is spread by Anopheles, a different mosquito species.
Oxitec has genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes so that when they mate with wild female mosquitoes, they pass on a protein that prevents female offspring from surviving to adulthood. The absence of female mosquitoes will lead to a population decline, which will reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
“As malaria is transmitted through infected Anopheles mosquitoes, it is scientifically impossible for Oxitec’s Aedes aegypti to carry malaria. There is no interbreeding between species. And Oxitec mosquitoes are 100% male, meaning they do not carry diseases nor do they bite humans,” Van Raalte said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes for field testing in the Florida Keys and parts of California. Harris County, Texas, was removed as an approved testing location in 2022 after no activity occurred there.
Our ruling
Social media posts claimed Gates’ financial support of mosquito programs led to the five recent cases of malaria in the U.S.
Over the years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given money to companies to help combat malaria’s spread in areas where the disease is most prevalent, such as Africa and Central America. However, the foundation has not funded any U.S. mosquito release programs.
The foundation has given money to Oxitec to combat malaria in Africa and Central America. And although Oxitec does research in the U.S., it is unrelated to malaria. The company is using genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes — not the type that carry malaria — to control the mosquito population and reduce the spread of diseases.
We rate this claim False.
