Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates finally spoke out against the conspiracy theories doing the rounds on social media that he is planning to implant microchips in people through Covid-19 vaccine.
Gates told CBS News that he wants the truth to reach people and hoped the fake news “dies down”.
The reports accusing Gates of planning something so outlandish was fuelled by an outburst from the head of Russian Communist Party in May. Gennady Zyuganov, in a column, attacked “capital globalism” and claimed that the mandatory vaccination plan is a “ploy by so-called globalists to implant chip in every human being so that their movements could be monitored”.
Gates said he wants to bring the coronavirus pandemic to an end and hoped that the theory dies down as people get the facts.
Gates and a foundation led by him and his wife Melinda are working to find a vaccine for Covid-19. In February, the foundation had announced that it is donating US $100 million to vaccine research and treatment efforts.
Meanwhile, GSK and CureVac, backed by Gates, are work on developing up to five so-called mRNA-based vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for infectious diseases. mRNA vaccines use ribonucleic acid (RNA), a chemical messenger that evokes an immune response when injected by instructing cells to make proteins that mimic pathogens.
The approach, also being deployed in experimental Covid-19 vaccines by BioNTech and partner Pfizer and Moderna, is yet to be approved in any therapy.
Tech giant Google had recently said that it will prohibit websites and apps that use its advertising technology from running ads on “dangerous content” that goes against scientific consensus during the coronavirus pandemic.
Examples of content that will not be allowed to make money from ads include debunked conspiracy theories, such as the notion that the novel coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab as a bioweapon, that it was created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates or that the virus is a hoax, Google said.