- It's like waking up from a bad dream,
going into a nightmare day after day.
- This is Maatje Benassi.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic
she and her husband Matt
led pretty normal lives
working for the U.S. military.
- We don't do anything,
we just go to work,
you know, ride our bicycles.
- Now they're at the center of
an elaborate conspiracy theory.
One of its biggest promoters
is a man named George Webb.
- This goes back to our story here,
which is patient zero
which is Maatje Benassi.
- He's a conspiracy theorist who has
nearly 100,000 subscribers on YouTube.
He falsely claims without any evidence
that Maatje brought the virus to China
during a cycling competition last October.
- We are interwoven
into his storyline now.
He's never gonna give it up.
- Webb's accusations are
baseless and far-flung.
- Benny Benassi, this story has
a lot of Benassi, and this--
- He even claims an Italian DJ,
Benny Benassi, is part of the plot.
- He's also Dutch, and he's the first
coronavirus victim in Holland.
- Well, no, guys, to be
honest this is crazy.
So I'm born and raised in Italy.
- Have you been diagnosed
with the coronavirus?
- No, I'm okay, no fever,
no nothing, no, no, no.
- Maatje is in the U.S. Army Reserve
and last October she competed in the
Military World Games in Wuhan, China.
(marching band music)
Six months later, comments
under Webb's YouTube videos
about the Benassis have become
the stuff of nightmares.
- "Execute them by firing squad."
"We need to be killing these key people."
"These people will get
a bullet to the skull."
- It's unreal.
And the danger he put us in, unreal.
- Okay, hello, everyone,
it's March 20th here--
- The conspiracy theory
has even reached China.
Webb has been featured in media controlled
by the Chinese Communist Party
which has sought to deflect
blame for the coronavirus.
- Have you been able to get
health protection from law enforcement?
- Because they're not direct
threats where they say,
"We're coming to kill
the Benassis tonight,"
there's not a lot that
they can actually do.
And then they say, "Go
talk to a civil attorney."
So we did, and for folks like us
it's just too expensive to
litigate something like this.
- Is this Donie?
- Is this George?
- Yes, how you doin', Donie?
- Hi, George, how are you?
Donie O'Sullivan here from CNN.
We called Webb.
He offered no substantive evidences
for his claims about Maatje Benassi.
Could you talk me through
the specific evidence
you have that she is, as you described,
coronavirus patient zero?
- Yeah.
Well, I have to, there's a
lot of circumstantial evidence
and then there's a source
here that I cannot reveal.
- So specifically on Maatje Benassi,
how do you know that
she has the coronavirus
or has antibodies, how do
you know that for sure?
- Well, I have a source at the
Fort Belvoir Community Hospital
and she actually works at,
or I have someone saying
that she works at the Fort
Belvoir Community Hospital
and she tested positive
for the coronavirus.
- She denies that.
- She denies that?
Did she deny that she works at the
Fort Belvoir Community Hospital?
- She denies that she's
had the coronavirus,
that she's had any symptoms
of the coronavirus.
She and her husband don't
have the coronavirus.
The Benassis say YouTube
isn't doing enough
to stop the spread of conspiracy theories.
- When we get the video removed,
how quickly do you think
that video popped up
in other places on YouTube?
And then I had to go after
each one of those occurrences.
You just can't keep up with it.
- A YouTube spokesperson told CNN
the company is committed to promoting
accurate information about the coronavirus
and taking down misinformation
when it's flagged by users.
YouTube took down some trending comments
under Webb's videos after
CNN asked about them.
- Couple years ago I was
diagnosed with a rare cancer.
Dealing with that situation is way easier
than trying to deal with
this George Webb situation.
- It's getting out of
hand and it needs to stop
because you never know,
somebody might take it so,
maybe their parent or child
died of the coronavirus
and then they're gonna come to my house,
think I did this.
But there are times that it gets to me.
I just go in my own little place.
But we will get through this.
We will.
