Myth FOUR:

“The COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips for government tracking.” FACT: They don’t.

Baseless claims about COVID-19 vaccines containing microchips were circulating well before the vaccines existed — even though that’s not physically possible.

As Dr. Paul Offit, chair of vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, pointed out: “A microchip is about 0.5 inch long. That wouldn’t fit through the end of a needle.” Also:

Myth FIVE:

“The COVID-19 vaccines contain metals and other problematic ingredients.” FACT: They don’t.

The makeup of the vaccines available in the U.S is no secret. Ingredient lists for the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots can all be found online, courtesy of the FDA.

But conspiratorial claims abound:

Gates isn’t fighting to keep the ingredients secret. They’re already public.
The vaccines do not contain aluminum, metals or other materials that a magnet could interact with, despite false claims and videos purporting to show otherwise.
The vaccines do not contain toxic ingredients that are more dangerous than COVID-19.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine allowed in parts of Europe does not contain aborted fetal tissue.
Moderna’s vaccine does not include an ingredient “for research use only,” and Pfizer’s does not contain graphene oxide, as two Instagram videos claimed.
There is no plot to kill people with vaccines full of saline, which is used to dilute the Pfizer vaccine before it is injected.

Myth SIX:

“The COVID-19 vaccines have caused widespread death and disease.” FACT: They haven’t.

The COVID-19 vaccines are known to cause some temporary side effects, such as fatigue. But widespread death and serious disease? Such claims often trace back to an unverified federal database that has become a breeding ground for anti-vaccine misinformation.

Carlson, for example, cited the database to suggest that thousands of people had died from the vaccines. His claim rated False. But similarly problematicclaims continue to spread online.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote as of July 21 that based on its review of all information for death reports in the database, there remains no “causal link” to the vaccines.

Gates never said that the vaccine would kill 1 million people.
The vaccines have not been shown to cause death, autoimmune diseases, prion diseases or neurodegenerative diseases, or sudden infant death syndrome.
There’s no evidence that the vaccines produce a toxin causing heart problems.
The death rate for vaccinated people is not higher than for unvaccinated people. And vaccine-related deaths don’t rival COVID-19 deaths.
There’s no evidence that funeral directors said the only people dying are dying because of the COVID-19 vaccine. Most people dying from COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
The CDC did not say that the vaccine is sending more young people to the hospital than the coronavirus.

Podcasts