In the midst of a pandemic that's been politicized and
public health advice that keeps on changing. It's easy to
understand why misinformation spreads. I've read articles
about putting a little chip in with a vaccine.
So when the cameras, the 5g comes out. What? They're gonna
scan everybody, we got to get scanned? All of you are
practicing the devil's law. What happened to Bill Gates? Why is
he not in jail?
It's a big thing that's going on TikTok right now. What can you
just put that to rest and say how ridiculous it is. That we
are not dealing with chips.You're not being injected
with chip.
Doctors, scientists, and the makers of microchips all agree
there's no chip in the COVID-19 vaccine.
That's just not possible as far as the size that would be
required for that microchip. Second, that microchip would
have to have an associated power source. And then in addition,
that power source would have to transmit a signal through at
least an inch of muscle and fat and skin to a remote device,
which again just doesn't make sense.
Videos making fun of the theory and some supporting it have
gotten millions of views. But the vaccine does not inject a
microchip that can track you make you magnetic, or connect
you to a 5g network.
There's lots of stuff that the government can use to track us
through our phones through our credit cards, the vaccine is the
least of your worries.
Still, when 1,500 American adults were asked in July
whether the US government is using the COVID-19 vaccine to
microchip the population 5% said it was definitely true, while
another 15% said it was probably true. Only 46% said it was
definitely false. Often the
belief in some of these misinformation or some of these
conspiracy theories comes from a desire to make the world a
better place or protect the ones that we love. This pandemic
should have been one of those things that brought us together,
just like 9/11 brought us together. Right now we're very
much still divided. And quite honestly, our accounts in my
hospital right now are higher than they ever been throughout
the entire pandemic.
We talked to doctors, vaccine researchers, and one man who
does have microchips under his skin about where this conspiracy
theory came from, and why it's not possible.
The first requirement for a conspiracy theory to take hold
is that it's rooted in something plausible. In this case, one of
the places it started is this 22 page paper on quantum mechanics.
Kevin McHugh wrote it when he was a postdoctoral fellow at
MIT.
It's interesting to see how someone takes like, a little bit
of truth and then spins it into some totally different story
that's just, you know, not based in fact anymore.
The research conducted only on rats so far explored how
miniscule light emitting particles called quantum dots
could be delivered to the skin to record vaccine history,
specifically in lower income nations that don't have
electronic medical records.
It's not a microchip it's a nanoparticle when coupled to the
actual vaccine itself, so no one can possibly kind of make a
mistake that would cause a child to be unprotected.
It does play on very real insecurities about living in the
modern world about having your data collected things that we
know to be true and conspiracy theories work well because they
lean on those kernels of truth.
The next ingredient for a conspiracy that sticks is
funding from someone rich and famous.
Bill Gates has kind of often been included in conspiratorial
rhetoric because he represents this global elite and most
conspiracies are about sort of tackling you know, a global
cabal.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation helped found global
vaccine Alliance GAVI two decades ago.
That's why our foundation has committed over 250 million to
support COVID-19 vaccine research.
The Gates Foundation also funded that MIT study on quantum dots.
The connection was enough to put Bill Gates at the center of the
conspiracy. A day before last year's vaccine summit gates
addressed to the conspiracy theory in a call with reporters.
Misinformation thing is just so weird, there's no chips or
anything like that, you know, that have any connection to this
thing. I mean, it's almost hard to deny this stuff because it's
so stupid or strange.
Over the past year, Bill Gates was mentioned in reference to
vaccine microchips or barcodes nearly 159,000 times across
traditional social broadcast and online media. As the co-founder
of Microsoft, he's also targeted by the anti-tech movement and
all the fear around 5g. This ties in the last ingredient for
a successful conspiracy theory, a buzzword to make it go viral.
It's not like we see these misinformation narratives
singularly they work because they build off of one another.
The
final twisted result is a false conspiracy that goes something
like this. The global distribution of the COVID-19
vaccine is in fact a ploy by Bill Gates and other elites to
inject each person with a tracking microchip that would be
activated by 5g wireless technology. So let's break it
down. Is there in fact a chip small enough to fit enough
vaccines syringe. The Covid vaccines are administered with
25 to 22 gauge needles far smaller than the 16 gauge
needles used for drawing blood. The vaccine needles have
internal diameters between about point two six and point four one
millimeters. Now let's talk about the size of chips. A chip
with 5g functionality is a little smaller than a penny. The
smallest radio frequency identification or RFID chip is
indeed small enough at point one to five millimeters, but they
only function when attached to a coil antenna. That makes the
single chip system about the size of a grain of rice, which
would require a syringe about 13 times larger than the one used
to inject the vaccine. At the very edge of scientific
advancement, researchers are working on potentially
injectable temperature sensors like this one at Columbia
University shown inside an 18 gauge needle, which has an inner
diameter more than three times larger than that used for a
Covid vaccine.
The individual subcomponents and very, very small chips are small
enough, but they need to be attached to everything else that
makes them work that makes them into a device and not just a
random floating RFID tag.
We also ask companies that manufacture chips whether the
technology exists. I think
the answer to that question is probably not. We are able to do
a lot of things but actually a vaccine that would have a
microchip in it. Not yet.
At this point in time, I wouldn't be too worried about
getting injected with basically devices and products. It doesn't
exist. Simple as that.
Jowan Österlund has developed a chip that can be implanted in
the skin. He has four.
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tic rod to attract more em, nd a tiny microchip that contai
s of tiny, tiny m
Österlund 's injected the RFID chips in about 6000 people so
far, mostly in Sweden charging up to 150 euros per device, he
uses a needle more than 10 times bigger than the one used for
vaccines.
I do single sign on on my laptop, I don't know 50 times a
day. Unlocking your phone, getting into my house. It's
strictly convenience.
RFID chips have been commercially available since the
70s. They store a tiny amount of data which can be read from a
few inches away by other devices enabled with near field
communication or NFC technology. Now that NFC has taken off, RFID
chips allow things like payng without swiping your card,
keyless access to your building and quick entry to public
transit.
Getting rid of your wallet and key chain and allowing that
microchip to represent whatever cards and keys you have
cluttering your your pockets. But the
value of the bio hacks chips is that each one is unique. The way
Covid vaccines are administered makes it impossible to ensure
even a nonspecific chip would end up in each arm. While the
bio hacks chips are injected using a large syringe prefilled
with the unique RFID device. The Covid vaccine is drawn up from a
vial that contains between five and 15 doses. Dr. Matt Lawrence
is a co-investigator on the phase three trials of the
Moderna and Novavax Covid vaccines.
So that multi dose vial is intended for multiple
individuals. So the thought that you could precisely pull up the
exact volume that's required for a vaccine for an individual and
randomly hoped that you would get a very small microchip for
each and every single person who's intended to be dosed with
that vial is just simply not possible.
In a fictional world where a chip was able to be injected
through a vaccine, then it would be impossible for it to transmit
data back out without an antenna, which would make it
even larger, especially through muscle and skin.
The depth of the mRNA vaccine insertion would be approximately
an inch to an inch and a half, which is fairly deep. And again,
this is muscle tissue, which is very dense.
MRNA vaccines are injected into muscle while the bio hacks chip
is injected much shallower just under the skin.
That's why you can push it up and see. I mean, if this was any
any deeper, you wouldn't be able to communicate it with a phone
or even with a door mounted reader.
And then there's the problem of power. Bio hacks devices are too
small to be powered.
The biggest triumph for something that goes in or on a
body and as a power source is pacemaker. In general, you can
think of the power sources being about the size of a coincell.
James Heather's makes wearable devices including some for the
Department of Defense, that track movement and biometrics.
His devices are powered by a battery about the size of a
thick postage stamp.
Inside there is a thin silicon patch and that manages to
contain the microprocessor, the inductive charging pad, the
battery, and most of the other ancillary electronics with
sensors that are running down the sleeve.
Because he developed devices to track people and collect data, a
thought popped into Heather's head during the 15 minute
waiting period after he got his shot.
Well how do you know they didn't microchip here and that set off
a very interesting chain of internal events are made which
concluded closer to robustly impossible for a number of
reasons.
In reality, an RFID chip is a passive device used for
identification purposes like inventory. They're also what's
used to microchip pets, a scanner needs to be within a
couple feet to read it's minuscule amount of data, you
can't track the live location of a lost pet, even when it's
microchipped for this same reason, but if it's picked up by
a shelter, a vet can hold a scanner over the animal to
identify it. Debunked conspiracies have long claimed
that RFID chips and everything from your tires to your bra are
tracking us.
It's not a very good tracking device if I have to stand right
next to you to retrieve information from what's actually
being located.
Although tracking chips aren't possible in the Covid vaccine,
the misinformation campaign found traction in part because
medical injustices have happened in our country's not too distant
past, like a public health study in Tuskegee, Alabama, that
falsely claimed to be treating hundreds of black men for
syphilis from 1932 to 1972. And it
resulted in, you know, at least 100 black men dying. That's what
happens to black and brown community. So it's a legitimate
concern. And I want to make sure that you aren't trying to hurt
me, because you've been proven not to be trustworthy.
That's why Dr. Ebony Hilton was the first person to receive the
vaccine at the University of Virginia last December.
Literally knowing
the medical injustice that the black community in particular
has lived through. And I knew how important it would be for
representation for persons to see like, is this something I
can actually trust.
That doesn't make them conspiracy theorists, it makes
them in some ways, rational actors and trying to evaluate,
given what they know about the history of the US and medical
care, that they're rational and in being hesitant in asking
questions and wanting to be persuaded.
So how does Dr. Hilton persuade people that conspiracy is false?
Because we have racial health disparities, and we know that
black and brown people are dying at higher rates from COVID-19
infections. If the government did not give us access to the
vaccine, that would be Tuskegee, part two, right, a new version
of it. And if you're looking at who actually were the first
persons in line to get vaccinated, they were the Donald
Trump's of the world. They they were, you know, the Mitch
Mcconnell's.
Fear of government overreach has resurfaced with President
Biden's recent vaccine mandate for federal workers and
contractors. Although in reality, it's nothing new.
George Washington required his colonial army to be vaccinated
against smallpox, the best way of keeping the disease from
spreading and ultimately wiping it out is to reach herd
immunity.
In reality, orchestrating such a complex plot would require mass
cooperation from companies and government leaders. We all have
bad
experiences with the government, the DMV doesn't work or, you
know, you're can't call up the tax people if you need to get
your taxes done. And yet, we seem to think that also could
orchestrate this incredible plan to get microchips in all of us.
And then there's the measurable cost.
Economically, this doesn't seem feasible. I mean, we're the
government's already spending an enormous amount of money and in
making the vaccines available, and governments here and
governments around the world are doing so. So it seems unlikely
that the additional costs of getting microchips will be
affordable. At
least half of Americans have been vaccinated, at least as far
as adults are concerned or those who are eligible. So just
thinking about the number of individuals for whom chips would
have had to have been developed, manufactured, distributed, and
then tracked. Logistically, it's simply overwhelming.
In fact, those spreading misinformation may have their
own economic incentives. The
sad fact is that misinformation is incredibly profitable as
well. You know, there are plenty of people who making a lot of
money off of vaccine hesitancy by redirecting people to
supplements that they happen to sell or alternative practices
that they've written a book about, or even just kind of
people who are getting money from ad sales and engagement.
Indeed, companies are making billions by tracking and selling
your data. They're just not using vaccines to do it.
Facebook doesn't need a microchip in order to monetize
your clicking and your data that you are giving them freely.
For an accurate record of your movements and purchases, look no
further than your phone, credit card and GPS navigation.
You can get like an 90% accuracy, know what the next
purchase is going to be, and where and why if you express
yourself in a certain way, and then go to Spotify, then go to
McDonald's. All of those metrics and all of that data has been
track has been compartmentalised and siloed, and been sold to the
highest bidder.
While some chase the false narrative of chips and Covid
vaccines, experts are focused on real threats to our privacy and
data security caused by society's willing participation
in an ever digital age.
If the only thing you're worried about is tracking, then you need
to go live in the unabomber shack in the middle of Montana,
get rid of all your technology. But if you want to live in the
modern world, you're gonna have to balance the real fears that
you should have that come with those conveniences.
We can find out just as much from you just by having your
cell phone in your pocket, or just as much from me from just
going to the store and buying a coffee these days. So we have
lots of different technology to track people and their data. And
hopefully we'll have more robust legal systems so we know those
systems better, but we definitely don't need to put a
microchip in people's arms.