claim: Bill Gates-funded company released genetically modified mosquitoes in the U.S. and caused a malaria outbreak
evidence: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports research into fighting malaria, including funding a company that releases genetically modified mosquitoes that are incapable of carrying the disease. But reports of locally acquired cases of malaria in the U.S. have sparked social media posts that baselessly suggest Gates was behind the recent outbreak. [...] The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds efforts to fight the spread of malaria, and it has provided funding to a British biotech company, Oxitec, to release genetically modified mosquitoes in Africa that are incapable of carrying the disease. [...] Social media posts implied that Gates-funded research involving genetically modified mosquitoes is linked to the U.S. malaria cases, though they offered no evidence. In any case, Oxitec mosquitoes couldn’t be responsible for the recent outbreak: They’re incapable of transmitting disease.