Conspiracy theories are nothing new to the United States. Throughout the pandemic, there have been conspiracy theories floating around. People will always choose to think a certain way or believe something is more than it is, which leads to confusion in information as we follow the latest updates of coronavirus.
Possible future vaccine will be microchipped.
All over social media, people are constantly saying they will not wear a mask and will not get vaccinated against COVID-19 if one emerges in the future. This theory originated sometime in April where Facebook and Reddit groups began to form. In these groups, they discussed how Bill Gates was backing the vaccine and is planning on using microchips. Robert F. Kennedy, who supported and popularized the idea that vaccines cause autism, is a big believer in Bill Gates conspiracy theories and against a possible COVID-19 vaccine.
Hospitals are marking deaths as COVID-19 even if they died of unrelated causes.
This conspiracy stemmed on April 9th, where Dr. Scott Jensen implied that cases are being inflated. This led to figures such as 13,000 dollars per diagnosed case and 39,000 per patient who needs a ventilator, which originated from a meme on Facebook. It has been proven plausible that medicare may be paying some fee for diagnosed cases or deaths, the actual figure is undetermined. It has also been said that if an individual died of COVID-19 related symptoms they may still have COVID-19 listed on the certificate. While this is plausible, this is because of the shortage of tests and materials that cannot be accessed at the time of death.
COVID-19 was lab created in China.
Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash
This conspiracy began when rumors spread that one of China's labs that study viruses was pinpointed to be in close proximity to the Wuhan market. This lab happens to be a level four lab, which leaves little probability that anything is escaping the facility.
Bill Gates is responsible for the pandemic.
Photo by Tadas Sar on Unsplash
Bill Gates is a well known billionaire and vaccines supporter. In 2010, he had talked about a pandemic coming. In 2018, he urged Donald Trump to start preparing for a possible pandemic. This has caused people to believe that Bill Gates created COVID-19 so he could earn more money. Bill Gates has spent a large part of his career researching and and supporting efforts that deal with infectious diseases, making him knowledgeable. He has pledged billions of his own dollars into research and funding to support creating vaccinations.
COVID-19 was unleashed as population control.
Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash
People believe that the vaccination is being used as a means for population control. Whether that means that the possible vaccine will be injecting those with the virus or the vaccine will have other harmful chemicals, who knows.
The more that conspiracy theories form, the harder it is to see the truth. At the end of the day, stay safe and stay informed.
