Ilonggos poised to reject vaccine microchip rumors

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“I guess rumors are more exciting than the truth.”—Venus Williams

THERE is a strong possibility that Iloilo City will be the first outside Metro Manila to vaccinate its 500,000 residents if the proposed purchase of PHP200-million worth of vaccines from the AztraZeneca Pharmaceuticals will materialize soon as disclosed recently by Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas.

This means Ilonggos may altogether reject the vaccine microchip rumors being spread by anti-vaccine advocates, a conspiracy theory that has spanned the globe since last year and has sent fears and doubts to many people, including the Filipinos.

If Iloilo City officials push through with the plan to vaccinate 100% of its population once the vaccines are available, the microchip rumors will not stack up and might be jeered, at least by the Ilonggos who now want to rebound from dire straits and the terrible inconvenience brought by the pandemic.

Being the first to arm its residents with a weapon against COVID-19, Iloilo City is expected to rally its residents to shun the claims of paranoid anti-vaccine characters that “the coronavirus pandemic is a cover for a plan to implant trackable microchips and that the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it.”

It’s pure non-sense and not funny, to say the least.

 

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Since last year, experts haven’t found any evidence to support these irrational allegations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had claimed the accusation was “false”.

It will remain as a rumor, an unfounded canard that will only delay humanity’s efforts to get past the deadly pandemic that has infected 84,474,195 and killed 1,848,704 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The panic actually worsened last year when the head of the Russian Communist party disclosed that so-called “globalists” supported “a covert mass chip implantation which they may in time resort to under the pretext of a mandatory vaccination against coronavirus”.

There was no mention of Gates by name but in the US, controversial Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, claimed Gates and others were using the virus for “microchipping people so we can tell ‘whether you’ve been tested’.”

 

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According to the BBC News, “a new YouGov poll of 1,640 people suggests that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people – with the figure rising to 44% among Republicans.”

Rumors took hold in March 2020 when Gates said in an interview that eventually “we will have some digital certificates” which would be used to show who’d recovered, been tested, and ultimately who received a vaccine. Gates, however, made no mention of microchips.

That response led to one widely shared article, under the headline: “Bill Gates will use microchip implants to fight coronavirus”.

BBC Reality Checkers Jack Goodman and Flora Carmichael reported that  the article makes reference to a study, funded by The Gates Foundation, into a technology that could store someone’s vaccine records in a special ink administered at the same time as an injection.

“However, the technology is not a microchip and is more like an invisible tattoo. It has not been rolled out yet, would not allow people to be tracked and personal information would not be entered into a database, says Ana Jaklenec, a scientist involved in the study,” reported the BBC Fact Checkers.

Quoted by the BBC Fact Checkers, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said: “The reference to ‘digital certificates’ relates to efforts to create an open-source digital platform with the goal of expanding access to safe, home-based testing.”

 

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BBC reported that Gates did not say this about a vaccine and confirmed

“the Microsoft billionaire has been the target of many different false rumors about vaccines.”

A post on a UK-based Twitter account reportedly said: “Bill Gates admits the vaccine will no doubt kill 700,000 people” and links to a video featuring right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

“The claim in the tweet, which has had more than 45,000 retweets and likes, is false and misrepresents Gates’ words,” explained the BBC.

Gates was talking about the efficacy of vaccines in older people and cautions about the risk of side-effects in that video. BBC said Gates sets out a hypothetical situation about the potential harm of side-effects, saying: “If we have one in 10,000 side-effects, that’s way more… 700,000 people who will suffer from that.”

It added that Gates did not “admit” 700,000 will die from a vaccine. Conspiracy theories about Gates have reached the Italian Parliament, where an independent MP called for Gates to be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)