If by "gatekeeping" you mean "peer review," yes, that's the point. Also, what "funders"? The journal isn't funded by the same people as whomever is funding the research...

TBF scientific fields can fall into groupthink, prioritization based on funding priorities, etc... And this can do things like preventing novel ideas from coming to fruition before they should, etc. That's a debate to have "on the margins" there and there is robust discussion about it in the scientific world.

But "millions die from COVID vaccine" is as much of a BS claim as "the earth is flat" or "the sky is green." There are many aspects of COVID revisionism that I'm all for discussing, lab-leak, the efficacy of lockdowns, etc. But this is Lizard people talk.