Bill Gates personally will profit from a COVID-19 vaccine and he owns a company that plans to implant microchips in everyone.
These claims are among several conspiracy myths that villainize Gates, one of the world\s most generous philanthropists, and are included in a post (archived here) shared on Facebook on April 9, 2020. It included a photo of Gates with Dr. Anthony Fauci, with the caption "This picture should disturb you. If it doesn\t you better wake up" The text next to the image opened:, This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:, , The full text of these posts read:, Gates participated in a "Ted Talk" in March titled "How we must respond to the coronavirus pandemic":, , The "Event 201" reference in the post concerns a "tabletop exercise" on October 18, 2019, in which the John Hopkins Center for Health Security teamed up with the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation., A website for the event described it as a "global pandemic exercise":, The exercise illustrated areas where public/private partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severe pandemic in order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences., "Lead Stories debunked any suspicion that the exercise was evidence that Gates was involved in a coronavirus plot. Read our story for more: Fake News: High-Level Exercise Conducted 3 Months Ago Did NOT Show That A Coronavirus Pandemic Could Kill 65 Million People", The claim that Gates is "going to profit the most from this virus with his vaccines he\s pushing on everyone" is false. There are many potential vaccines in development, with some already in human testing. Gates does not have a personal financial interest in any of them, although he has spent money paving the way for the production and distribution if one of the vaccines is proven safe and effective., The Wall Street Journal raised the question of Gates profiting from the pandemic in a May 11, 2020, profile titled Bill Gates Has Regrets:, A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates said the couple have pledged to give most of their estimated $106 billion fortune to charity before they die or in their will. "These conspiracy theories and misinformation are completely false," she said., What changes are we going to have to make to how businesses operate to maintain our economy while providing social distancing?, The question of which businesses should keep going is tricky. Certainly food supply and the health system. We still need water, electricity and the internet. Supply chains for critical things need to be maintained. Countries are still figuring out what to keep running., Eventually we will have some digital certificates to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has received it., The claim that Gates "has a company called ID 2020 which will track everyone through microchips the size of a grain of rice that they inject into you with a needle" is also unfounded., Microsoft, for which Gates is now only an adviser, was a founding member of the ID2020 Alliance in 2018, which states this in its FAQ:, A digital identity, as we see it is a grouping of digital identifiers. So, if you interact with any technology connected to the Internet, or to a mobile network, you have a digital identity., However, the posting gets wrong the idea that microchips "the size of a grain of rice" would be injected into people to track everything we do, and everywhere we go. Lead Stories also examined this claim, which stems from a Microsoft filing of a patent application for "cryptocurrency system using body activity data." The patent makes no mention of microchips being implanted in people. Read our debunk titled Fact Check: Fact And Fiction About Microsoft Patent Application \WO2020060606 - CRYPTOCURRENCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA\, Finally, the post makes this claim:, Might I also add that this diabolical man is also THE largest donor of the World Health Organization? Think about that folks. THERE. IS. AN. AGENDA!!!, "It is true that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may now be the single-largest donor to WHO, following the halt in funding by the United States -- a stoppage announced by President Trump on April 14, 2020. But thats according to the WHOs 2018-2019 budget.", , In a May 2017 story titled "Meet the world\s most powerful doctor: Bill Gates" in POLITICO, Gates\ role with WHO was examined, even criticized., "Over the past decade, the worlds richest man has become the World Health Organizations second biggest donor, second only to the United States and just above the United Kingdom. This largesse gives him outsized influence over its agenda, one that could grow as the U.S. and the U.K. threaten to cut funding if the agency doesnt make a better investment case.", "Concerns about the software billionaires sway -- roughly a quarter of WHOs budget goes toward polio eradication -- has led to an effort to rein him in. But he remains a force to be reckoned with, as WHO prepares to elect one of three finalists to lead the organization.", "All of the candidates are going to have to ally with him in some way," said Sophie Harman, associate professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London. "You can\t ignore him.", "Evidence of Gates unprecedented influence abounds in ways subtle and showy.", Already a decade ago, when Gates started throwing money into malaria eradication, top officials -- including the chief of the WHO\s malaria program -- raised concerns that the foundation was distorting research priorities. "The term often used was \monopolistic philanthropy\, the idea that Gates was taking his approach to computers and applying it to the Gates Foundation," said a source close to the WHO board.", Here are some of the other false claims about Bill Gates debunked by Lead Stories;, Fact Check: Video Does NOT Reveal That Coronavirus Vaccine Was Patented By Bill Gates In 2006, "Fact Check: Bill Gates, WHO & World Bank NOT Trumped By President Amid Coronavirus", "Fact Check: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation HQ Does NOT Read Center for Global Human Population Reduction", Fact Check: No Proof Is U.S. Planning to Force Vaccinations With Bill Gates Amid Coronavirus, "Fact Check: Fact And Fiction About Microsoft Patent Application WO2020060606 - CRYPTOCURRENCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA", "Fact Check: 496,000 Children In India Were NOT Paralyzed From Bill Gates Polio Vaccine From 2000-2017", "Fact Check: Bill Gates CANNOT Prescribe Drugs, And Dr. Sebi Was Barred From Practicing In Some States", Fact Check: India Is NOT Suing Bill Gates For Vaccination Deaths, "Fact Check: No Deep State Operators Trying To Ban Hydroxychloroquine", Fact Check: Bill Gates Does NOT Have Access To Your DNA And Does NOT Have Ownership In WHO, "Fact Check: Bill Gates Did NOT Write Open Letter Saying COVID-19 Reminds We Are All Equal", "Fact Check: NO Plan By Bill Gates And The Vatican To Depopulate World With Coronavirus Vaccine; Video Misinterprets Gates Speech", Fake News: Bill Gates Did NOT Help Fund Patent For Coronavirus, "Fake News: High-Level Exercise Conducted 3 Months Ago Did NOT Show That A Coronavirus Pandemic Could Kill 65 Million People", Fake News: Bill Gates Did NOT Admit Vaccinations Are Intended To Reduce Population, Fake News: Melinda Gates Did NOT Say We Must Discriminate Against All White People, Fake News: Former Bill Gates Doctor Did NOT Say Billionaire Refused To Vaccinate His Children, See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:, Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here., Managing Editor Eric\xa0Ferkenhoff has been a reporter, editor and professor for 27 years, working chiefly out of the Midwest and now the South. Focusing on the criminal and juvenile justice systems, education and politics, Ferkenhoff has won several journalistic and academic awards and helped start a fact-checking project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he continues to teach advanced reporting. Ferkenhoff also writes and edits for the juvenile justice site\xa0JJIE.org., , Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or\n      inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.\n      \n      Spotted something? Let us know!., Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or\n        inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.\n        \n        Spotted something? Let us know!.
Fact Check: Bill Gates Will NOT Personally Profit From A COVID-19 Vaccine And He Does NOT Own A Company That Will Put A Tracking Microchip In You | Lead Stories