Bill Gates has hit out at the bizarre conspiracy theory that he has used the Covid-19 vaccine to track people around the globe with microchips.
The Microsoft co-founder has been a prominent figure during the pandemic and even warned of a global outbreak back in 2015.
After all the work carried out by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to get a vaccine developed, he’s has rubbished the strange theory that he has a secret agenda to rule the world.
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"My foundation funds vaccine research to save lives," Gates said on a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread.
"The idea of chips in vaccines doesn't make sense. Why would I want to know where people are? What would I do with the information?"
He makes a valid point. If he had all of the information about the inane nonsense people get up to on a day-to-day basis, what benefit could he possibly hope to derive from that information?
Besides, it's estimated that 6.64 billion or (83.7 per cent) of the world's population has a smartphone, which already does a pretty good job of tracking where you are.
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Gates also went on to point out the good things his philanthropic work actually does.
"I spend billions on vaccines and I am proud they have helped cut under-five deaths in half over the last 20 years (from 10 per cent to 5 per cent)."
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Another Reddit user had another interesting Covid-19 vaccine query about how the inoculation actually works.
"Neither vaccination or infection prevents you from getting infected again but the disease will be milder and you will spread it less," Gates said.
Even though the coronavirus vaccine we currently have came around quite quickly, Gates revealed scientists are working on an even better one.
"Scientists funded by the Foundation are working on vaccines that prevent you from getting infected but those are three to four years away in the best case. So until then we will have to keep getting boosted," he said.
So there you have it folks, right from the horse's mouth.
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No, Bill Gates isn't trying to track you with microchips as (let's be real here) he doesn't really care about your boring lives. And we have a Covid-19 prevention on the way.
Earlier this year, his organisation donated $150 million (£110m) to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) in order to fight Covid and prepare for other potential outbreaks.
The Gates Foundation founded CEPI in 2017 alongside charitable foundation Wellcome and backing from Norway and India following the impact of the Ebola epidemic.
CEPI went on to build one of the world’s largest and most diverse portfolios of Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including six that continue to receive funding and three that were granted emergency use listing by The World Health Organization.
Topics: Bill Gates, Coronavirus, Reddit, News