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Debunked: No evidence of conspiracy theorists' claim about Bill Gates microchipping babies

A press release about vaccinating expectant mothers is the only evidence offered for the claim.

A NONSENSE CLAIM that Bill Gates has said that he plans to microchip all fetuses in the womb with digital IDs has been shared widely on social media, despite having no evidence.

“Bill Gates Unveils Plan to Microchip ALL Babies Worldwide Before They’re Born,” reads the caption on a video by The People’s Voice, a website that regularly spreads misinformation.

The Journal has previously debunked stories spread by The People’s voice, including ones claiming that “natural conception” had been banned; that Covid vaccines are fatal; that the Irish government will arrest people who refuse vaccines; and one involving “HIV-infected Green Monkey DNA“. Bill Gates has also frequently appeared in their stories, including one saying he had called on armies to forcefully vaccinate people.

“Suddenly, all the things so called fact-checks have called conspiracy theories have just become conspiracy facts,” a man speaks to camera in a video spread online, including by Irish accounts.

“According to Bill Gates himself, the future of public health includes force-vaccinating unborn children, injecting mRNA technology in the womb and embedding microchips that will link automatically to a child’s digital identity the moment they are born.”

The man goes on to reference a press release on vaccinations that can be given in utero.

One version of the video, posted by an Irish account, has been viewed more than 37,800 times since being posted on Instagram on 14 July.

The People’s Voice had previously released an article making the same claims on 10 July.

Like the video, it says that Gates is planning to “trick parents into allowing microchips and digital ID systems to be implanted in their babies in the womb,” and like the video, it mentions just one source for its claim, linking directly to a press release by the Gates Foundation, the Microsoft co-founder’s philanthropy arm.

The Gates Foundation piece, titled The Next Big Leap in Vaccines: Protecting Babies Before They’re Born, does talk about vaccines that can be given to expectant mothers, intended to give protection from diseases such as respiratory syncytial virus to their future children.

The piece does not mention injecting unborn fetuses with digital IDs, and no other source for this claim was provided by The People’s Voice.

While Bill Gates and his foundation has funded work on other digital IDs, including ones that use biometric technology to confirm people’s identity (e.g. fingerprints or iris scans). However, there is no evidence to back up the claim of a worldwide plan to microchip babies.

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