The pandemic outbreak was accompanied by many conspiracy theories. One of them, which has spread rapidly across the globe and continues to be discussed today, is that of injecting microchips into the Covid-19 vaccine. This theory claims that the coronavirus pandemic is a cover for a plan to implant traceable microchips and that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it.
But how did this theory come about and how true is it?
In fact, there is no "microchip" in vaccines and there is no evidence to support the claims that Bill Gates is planning this for the future.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation told the BBC the claim was "false".
Rumors began circulating in March when Bill Gates said in an interview that "we will have some digital certificates" which will be used to indicate who would be cured, tested and finally who made a vaccine. He did not mention any microchips.
This led to a widely circulated article entitled "Bill Gates will use microchip implants to fight the coronavirus." The article refers to a study, funded by The Gates Foundation, about a technology that can store someone's vaccine data in a single dye.
"However, technology is not a microchip and is more like an invisible tattoo. It has not been published yet, it will not allow people to be tracked and personal information will not be entered into a database ", says Ana Jaklenec, a scientist involved in the study.
The billionaire founder of Microsoft has been the subject of many false rumors during the pandemic. He has been targeted for his philanthropic work in public health and vaccine development.
Despite the lack of evidence, in May a YouGov poll of 1,640 people suggested that 28% of Americans believed Gates wanted to use vaccines to implant microchips in humans - the figure rose to 44% among Republicans.
Source: BBC
