Fact check: 'Rockefeller Playbook' and 'Operation Lockstep' are hoaxes
Chelsey Cox
USA TODAY
The claim: COVID-19 is part of 'Operation Lockstep' from 'The Rockefeller Playbook'
Recent posts to Facebook about "Operation Lockstep," a COVID-19 conspiracy theory, have gone viral.
The posts feature a page that was allegedly scanned from "The Rockefeller Playbook" that outlines the three phases of public response to the pandemic.
Phase 1 includes "mild cold/flu" that the "media" will exaggerate to induce "mass paranoia and fear" and inflation of COVID-19 case numbers. Phases 2 and 3 are marked by weakened immune systems due to masks, social distancing, exposure to 5G radiation and the weaponization of a deadlier virus because of widespread refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The latter will result in "anarchy from all sides" between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Our rating: False
We rate these claims as FALSE, based on our research. "The Rockefeller Playbook" and "Operation Lockstep" do not exist. The claim borrows scenarios from "Lock Step," a section of "Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development," a report published by the Rockefeller Foundation. The report makes no reference to COVID-19, a vaccine against the disease or plans to introduce a police state during a pandemic.
Our fact-check sources:
- Snopes, July 21, 2020: "Was the COVID-19 Pandemic Planned in Rockefeller’s ‘Operation Lockstep’?"
- The Rockefeller Foundation, May 2010, "Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development"
- Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center, accessed Jan. 9: "COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)"
- YouTube, accessed Jan. 9: "Global Watchmen News"
- USA TODAY, Oct. 8, 2020: "Fact check: Viral post that claims COVID-19 is a fraud cites no evidence"
- WUSA9, July 15, 2020: "VERIFY: 'Rockefeller document' doesn't prove theory coronavirus pandemic was planned in 2010"
- The Rockefeller Foundation, accessed Jan. 12: "About US"
- Ralph-Epperson.com, accessed Jan. 14: "Ralph Epperson"
- Internet Archive, accessed Jan. 14: "The New World Order by Ralph A. Epperson"