Conspiracy theorists have seized on a widespread hoax about snake venom in the water supply as an opportunity to hawk their products, even as the retired chiropractor behind the theory scrambles to distance himself from it.
Last week, far-right conspiracy theory communities went wild for a quasi-documentary produced by fringe online talk show host and former bounty hunter Stew Peters. The video, entitled “Watch the Water” after a QAnon catchphrase, features Peters interviewing retired chiropractor Bryan Ardis about his theory that the CDC planted king cobra venom in Covid-19 vaccines and the water supply in order to transfer Satanic DNA to unsuspecting people.
Ardis’s evidence for the venom theory is thin. Among other things, he claimed he got the idea for snake venom in the water supply from a fortune cookie and by watching a 2016 episode of NBC’s The Blacklist, in which a character played by James Spader suspects he’s been poisoned with venom. While The Blacklist is fictional, Ardis felt the episode carried some significance into the real world.
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“They are using the water systems because they can target specific demographics,” Ardis said.
Since its release, Watch the Water has racked up millions of views and been embraced by a number of pro-Trump conspiracy theorists. It’s also become a business opportunity for people like Pennsylvania QAnon promoter Phil Godlewski, who launched a website named after the video to sell water filtration devices. Some of the filtration equipment bundles from manufacturer Seychelle on the site cost hundreds of dollars — a small price to pay, according to Godlewski, who warned his fans that the possibility of cobra snake water planted in tap water meant they should stop drinking water until they can filter it out.
“I strongly advise that you stop drinking any water that is tap water, or even bottled water,” Godlewski said in a Friday video.
Godlewski stressed that more common water filter products like Brita filters couldn’t be trusted.
“You know who owns Brita?” Godlewski said. “The cabal.”
After complaints from his fans that the ostensibly life-saving filter package was too expensive, Godlewski raised $40,000 that he claims will go towards buying his less-affluent supporters the water filters.
Godlewski’s attempts to tie the water-venom theory to Seychelle water filters appear to have put the manufacturer in an awkward position. On Tuesday, Seychelle released a statement saying its filters were not designed to remove snake venom, and that they are sold with “no claim of snake venom removal.”
The company also avoided supporting the idea that water supplies have been laced with snake venom.
“Seychelle also does not authorize or endorse any claims that snake venom is being used as a tap water additive or that snake venom is a primary water contaminant of concern,” the statement read.
As the Watch the Water film took off on the conspiracist right, its originator began pushing back on the idea that he’s certain there’s venom in the water. Amid a backlash from other conspiracy theorists who found the venom idea too ridiculous to believe, Ardis appeared Friday on QAnon figure Ann Vandersteel’s show to suggest that water angle was being overemphasized.
“The story is not the water,” Ardis said. “Please, I cannot say this enough.”
Asked to respond to an anonymous internet commenter who pointed out that it would be impossible for the CDC to both coordinate the poisonings of municipal water supplies around the world and to collect enough snake venom to carry out the poisonings, Ardis conceded that he could have been wrong. But then he backtracked, repeating his belief that the government has dosed water reservoirs with venom.
“Please, please, please do not try to destroy my reputation of trying to save lives because I said to a person ‘I think they’re doing it in the water,’” Ardis said. “Because I think it’s in the water!”
Ardis’s attempts to downplay the envenomated water theory haven’t been embraced by all of his new supporters.
Christopher Key, an anti-vaccine activist who calls himself the “Vaccine Police,” has a history of embracing quack medical cures, including urging his followers to drink their own urine to fight off Covid-19. On Saturday, Key promised to mail chlorine dioxide — a dangerous fake medical treatment the FDA has compared to drinking bleach — to anyone looking for a cure to ingesting venom in tap water.
“I believe that chlorine dioxide is one of the antidotes,” Key said in a video.
Key insisted he wasn’t making money from giving the bleach away, perhaps because chlorine dioxide vendors have been arrested for trying to sell the toxic substance. But he did say he would accept donations.
