Doctor Anthony Fauci has reacted to the outlandish conspiracy theory that he and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had plotted to use a Covid-19 vaccine to implant microchips in Americans during the Covid pandemic.
The former chief medical advisor to the president addressed the unsubstantiated claim during an Oxford Union address last week, which focussed primarily on his handling of America's response to the pandemic.
Asked about whether any mistakes were made during the pandemic, Doctor Fauci blamed conspiracy theories for his country's "ideological" resistance to vaccination.
He said: "You have heard Bill Gates and I have put chips in the vaccines so that when you get vaccinated we can monitor all your activities. We can laugh at that because it's kind of ludicrous but it has also prevented a lot of people from getting vaccinated and that has cost lives."
Bill Gates has also laughed at the idea that he conspired with Doctor Fauci to monitor the public
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Gates made similar noises last year when asked about the wild conspiracy theory.
During an appearance on Trevor Noah’s podcast "What Now?", the Microsoft co-founder suggested the unsubstantiated claim did a tremendous amount of harm at a time when getting vaccinated meant saving lives.
"Getting kids to take things like the measles vaccine is super important in many countries. You know, that’s the difference between life and death. So, the skepticism about vaccines or medicine is very high and that’s making our health work a lot harder," Gates said.
It's unclear exactly when the conspiracy theory seeded but it appeared to gain traction primarily among Republicans during the early days of pandemic.
A survey in 2020 found more than 25 percent of Americans and 44 percent of Republicans bought into the outlandish claim.
The survey, conducted by Yahoo News and YouGov, asked 1,640 Americans about the conspiracy theory between May 20 and 21 of that year.
Some 28 percent of US adults who took part said they believed the widely debunked theory. Thirty-two percent of them were not sure but 40 percent believed it to be false.
Meanwhile 44 percent of people who identified as Republicans thought it was true, 31 percent were not sure and 26 percent thought it was false.
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Vaccinations may have prevented almost 20 million COVID-19 deaths worldwide in their first year
Getty ImagesIn contrast, 19 percent of Democrats believed the conspiracy theory about Gates. A majority of Democrats (52 percent) were able to identify the theory as false while 29 percent were not sure.
Editor's take
In addition to be entirely unsubstantiated, conspiracies surrounding the mass vaccination programme, which was introduced in response to the first wave of the pandemic back in 2020, are completely at odds with reality.
Vaccinations are estimated to have prevented almost 20 million Covid-19 deaths worldwide in the first year alone.
And they are still recommended as successive variants of Covid emerge.
NHS England is urging at-risk groups to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this spring.
People at increased risk from severe illness can get the vaccine, including those aged 75 or over (on 30 June 2024), people with a weakened immune system or who live in an older adult care home.
