About Bill Gates, microchips and conspiracy theories

Unlike many other conspiracy theories, we can (relatively) identify exactly where it came from and how it evolved as it bounced between news sites, social media users, and Twitter celebrities. Tracing the theory and its path of spread can teach us lessons about it in particular, and about conspiracy theories - and the people who believe in them - in general

You must have heard of Bill Gates. A lovable billionaire who basically wants to inject everyone's body with microchips, under the pretext of innocent vaccinations.

That, at least, is the conspiracy theory developed around Gates. She is not the first, and certainly won't be the last, that targets one of the richest people in the world. Unlike many other conspiracy theories, we can identify (relatively) exactly where it came from and how it evolved as it bounced between news sites, social media users and Twitter celebrities. Tracking the theory and its path of spread can teach us lessons about it in particular, and about conspiracy theories - and the people who believe in them - in general.

The theory is based on three false assumptions. We will refer to each of them in turn.

First assumption: Bill Gates predicted the epidemic

In mid-March, a new claim was released to the Internet, on Instagram. The writer, Freedom_Faction, reported on "a pandemic exercise that Bill Gates organized and hosted just one month before the first victims of the new corona virus were known. The clear implication was that Gates was the one who engineered the virus, or at least He knew in advance about the plan to release him.

The truth, as usual, is more complex. Gates did predict the coming of the epidemic, but he was not the first. He was preceded by... let's see... oh, yes: all the epidemiologists (disease researchers) since the great flu of 1918. Because you really don't need to be a great genius to understand that new viruses can spread rapidly in the world. George Bush, the president of the United States at the time, realized for himself (after reading a book about the flu) that some virus would attack the world in the coming decades, and insisted on setting up a whole team and plans for that virus. This was in 2005, and Bush described his decision as follows –

"There is no flu epidemic in our country or in the world right now, but if we wait for a global pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare for it, and one day many lives will be lost unnecessarily Because we were unable to act today."

This logic guides all plans to deal with viruses and epidemics in advance. Luckily for Bush (and the world), no epidemic came during his term of office, but one can guess that if one had appeared, question marks would have been raised by conspiracy theorists. Even during Obama's time, who agreed with the preparations against a possible global epidemic, not one of these appeared. It was precisely during the reign of Donald Trump, who chose to eliminate the American government's pandemic preparation team, that the new corona virus appeared. But many of his most ardent fans are also fans of conspiracy theories, so the suspicion did not fall on him.

And what about the Bill Gates event? It turns out that this is an event that repeats itself every few years - roughly every four years since 2001 - as part of the attempt to prepare for future global epidemics. The event was actually organized by Johns Hopkins University, In collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum. There is nothing unusual about this, and events like this happen all the time - and it's a good thing, since they help decision-makers deal better in real time with chaotic situations like a global epidemic.

So in conclusion, Bill Gates really guessed that one day we would have to deal with a global epidemic, but any wise statesman knew the same. And actually, they didn't have to, because Gates himself gave a talk in 2015 at the TED conference, In it, he warned that we are not ready for such an epidemic. It turns out he was right.

Second assumption: Bill Gates engineered the corona virus

There are claims that Bill Gates engineered the new corona virus. But all the evidence shows that the virus is completely natural and came (probably) from bats in the Wuhan area. In mid-March, a study was published in the respected scientific magazine - Nature Medicine - in which researchers analyzed the genetic code of the virus. They came to the unequivocal conclusion that the virus is not genetically engineered, for two main reasons:

The mutations that allowed the virus to infect humans with great success were not ones that the researchers could have predicted in advance. In fact, the most advanced computer models that were run to predict the effects of those mutations, yielded an answer that the results of the mutation would actually -=reduce=- the chance of contracting the virus. That is, any serious laboratory that wanted to engineer an effective virus, would have avoided these mutations.
If the virus had been engineered, it would be possible to find in its genetic code clues to the ways in which it was artificially engineered. and there is no did not find.
All this does not mean for sure that the virus is not genetically engineered, but it can be determined that if it is indeed engineered, then the scientists who developed it used such advanced methods that no one in the scientific community is familiar with them. Of course, if you already believe that governments are hiding all information from citizens, or that aliens have provided governments with advanced technological means to control the public, then this evidence will not convince you either. But if you really believe in all these, I'm not sure what you do.

But let's assume for a moment that the virus was indeed genetically engineered as a biological weapon. Does it really make sense for Gates to release it in China - the most controlled country in the world, where the Internet is monitored to the strictest level by the government? Why wouldn't he do it in Africa, or India, where the virus could spread in the crowded cities easily and quickly? Or in New York, from where it could spread to the whole world through the international airport? It makes no sense! And we're talking about one of the brightest people in the world here, yes? And with a serious team of consultants who would accompany him in every attempt to develop such a virus and spread it around the world.

And last but not least, why would Gates even want to develop such a virus?

Here another sub-claim joins the discussion, according to which Gates wants to reduce the population. Its source comes from Gates' statement from 2011, in an interview with CNN, in which Gates explains that -

"In this decade, we believe that it is possible to achieve incredible progress, also in inventing new vaccines and making sure they reach all the children who need them... We only need about six or seven more - and then you will have all the tools to reduce child deaths, to reduce the rate of population growth, And everything - the stability, the environment - benefits from this. "[6]

Sound incriminating? Well, Gates didn't reveal anything new here. Exactly twenty years ago, he founded the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation", with an investment of several billion dollars from his personal fortune. The fund grew rapidly, and today is considered the largest private fund in the world, with a capital of more than 45 billion dollars. Its main goals are to improve the health of the world's citizens and reduce the global poverty rate. To do this, it subsidizes treatments against HIV and AIDS, as well as vaccination systems against measles and other diseases, in the world's poorest countries.

The fact that the fund managed to prevent the premature death of tens of millions of people in developing countries - and continues to succeed in a similar way every year - raised concerns on the part of many. One of the main arguments heard against its activity is that since the birth rate in Africa is so high, any attempt to reduce the death rate will inevitably lead to a population explosion. Such an explosion will harm Africa in particular, and later - all over the world, due to the waves of refugees that will spread to all the other continents, and the need to continue supporting the poor countries with many children.

Gates' claim is that the situation is the opposite: the more the living conditions and survival chances of children in poor countries are improved, the less children the women bring into the world -=by choice and volition=-, because they can plan better for the future. They know that all their children will survive to adulthood, and they will all need education, food, clothing and so on. And so, those mothers do not bring more than two or three children into the world, and focus all their efforts on these children. This is a natural result of the improvement of public health: women give birth to fewer children, are able to concentrate more on studies and work, take fewer risks with each birth, and in short - everyone benefits.

Conspiracy theorists believe that this is a diabolical plot to reduce the world's population through vaccines that harm people on purpose. This claim has no practical basis. Thousands of studies conducted on vaccines have revealed no reason to think they cause harm - and certainly not infertility or death. And no, not autism either. Thousands of studies on the safety of vaccines debunked all these rumors a long time ago, and it is time to abandon them.

So no, Bill Gates did not engineer the virus. He doesn't even have a reason to do it.

Third assumption: Bill Gates is developing a vaccine that will implant a microchip in all of us

And here we came to the strangest idea of ​​all: even if Gates did not engineer the virus, he is going to develop a vaccine that will be injected into the body... and he will carry with him a microchip with which he will be able to follow us everywhere.

The source of this conspiracy theory is particularly interesting, as it has some basis. There is great difficulty in tracking vaccine registration in the developing world. It is enough to remember how difficult it is for us - in a modern country - to find the child's or dog's vaccination record, to understand what people in the developing world go through. Paperwork gets lost, and parents forget whether or not their fifth or sixth child was vaccinated.

To tackle this challenge, researchers at MIT have come up with an unusual solution: an invisible tattoo. They developed a system that allows injecting - along with the vaccine - also a few drops of color that the naked eye cannot distinguish. Only by using an application that projects light of certain wavelengths on the skin, it is possible to notice this tattoo, which should survive in the skin for about five years.

Although the system was not tested on children, it was published in a respected scientific journal - Science Translational Medicine - and was funded by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation[7]. And what's the wonder? After all, the fund subsidizes vaccines costing hundreds of millions of dollars in Africa. No wonder they want to achieve maximum efficiency in administering vaccines.

But when conspiracy buffs heard about it, it all blew up.

The conspiracy theory began to spread in earnest around the web as a result of a YouTube video released on March 17 in which it was claimed that Gates was trying to develop a vaccine that "will implant a global identity card in everyone". Technically, that's even true. But the theory continued and evolved. In conspiracy threads on Reddit, users claimed that Gates was planning to restrict citizens' ability to move, and enslave them to the evil forces of the government[9]. Oh, and of course, the supervision will be carried out through the 5G network.

And as they wrote there - "To get back the ability to move, we will need a digital certificate on the smartphone (and eventually on a microchip under the skin). The microchip will be used for buying and selling... the 5G network is here to track you... eventually through the microchip "Yup."

At least the Reddit user was cautious, and talked about future development. But that evening, conspiracy enthusiast Faith Goldie picked up on the matter, and spread news on Telegram that Gates is already starting to roll out the microchips. No basis at all, because who needs one anyway?

Four days later, a new YouTube video claimed Gates wanted to implant microchips in everyone as a sort of "mark of the devil." why? So that the United States government can identify them all. It is not clear why such microchips are needed at all, when the government can already track everyone through their smartphones, but again - the facts do not move anyone too much. The video has already received almost two million views and is shared in the usual conspiracy groups on Facebook and forums (see the end of this paragraph). After him, the floodgates were completely broken, and many videos began to appear on YouTube and TikTok. The highlight was when even the respected reporter Laura Ingram, from Fox News, reported on Twitter about Gates' malicious intentions, adding that the globalists believe that the epidemic will serve their dream of "digitally following Americans at every step." That tweet immediately reached more than three million followers and added fuel to a fire that was not supposed to be lit in the first place[11].

And again the question arises: why. Why does the government even need to implant a microchip in you, if it knows where you are at any given moment through the information it receives from your smartphones, Google, Facebook and all the other applications you use. Why would Gates serve the United States government in this way. Why would anyone even try this exercise - to implant chips in people's bodies - precisely at a time when all governments are worried that people will not want to receive the vaccine that will be developed in a year's time anyway.

So many questions, and there is no good answer.

Summary

Conspiracy theories tend to take a wealth of information and present it in a way that makes sense... until you start asking the really hard questions. In this case, I couldn't find good answers to all the "whys" that kept popping up as I read about more and more conspiracies.

Conspiracy theories also tend to appeal to our darker sides. They push our most exposed buttons. No one is really bothered by governments tracking us online anymore. We take it for granted. But tell people that the government wants to insert a chip into their bodies - and you will get a severe backlash. The current conspiracy plays on exactly this reaction, and that is how it is able to continue to spread so quickly on the Internet, with shocked people spreading it further and further, without having any real basis.

There are many things in our world that you can and should be upset about, backed up by clear data: the corruption of governments in developing countries, for example, or the appalling inefficiency of governments in general. Do you want to be angry? Want to improve the world? forward! Just please make sure beforehand that you are tuning in to the right people and the right goals. for the benefit of all of us.

Good luck, and as usual - only health.
For the blog of Dr. Roi Tsezna another science
* Dr.Roey Tsezana is the author of the books "The Guide to the Future" and "The Rulers of the Future"

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• The spread of the corona virus - a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. Why is it dangerous?
• The voice of the skeptic - a conspiracy for the masses / Michael Shermer
• Unequivocal: the fifth generation radiation (5G) is not the cause of the spread of the corona virus