20% Of Americans Believe There Are Microchips In The Covid-19 Vaccine

There is a lot of misinformation flying around the internet about the coronavirus vaccine.

One of those tricks is that the jab contains a microchip that is meant for tracking, surveillance, mind control or any other sort of monitoring.

While most people would pass that off as a flagrant conspiracy, the idea seems to have built up a big following in the US.

A YouGov study has found a whopping 20 per cent of Americans reckon there 'definitely is' or 'probably is' a microchip lurking in the vaccine.

The study, done in partnership with The Economist, discovered that people aged between 30 to 44 are the most likely to believe this easily debunked theory.

A shocking 27 per cent of citizens in this age category were in the definitely or probably camps.

Only 46 per cent of people were definitely sure the microchip theory was false.

It's incredible that such an idea has been able to gain such traction despite there being absolutely no evidence to support it.

No one on the planet has managed to get their hands on a vaccine, split it open, chuck the contents under a microscope and fish out the all-important chip.

You'd think a claim that depends on a physical object would be able to produce a sliver of proof. Yet, it has not.

But clearly you don't need evidence to convince the masses that the theory is true and that, my friends, is the power of misinformation. If enough people say it's true then some people will believe it to be so.

Conspiracy theory expert Dr Geoffrey Dancy told Insider: "The resort to conspiratorialism emerges during times of great uncertainty when we're groping for explanations for things that we can't explain.

"The great power of conspiracy theories is that you can offer them quickly, and you can point to somebody to blame for problems. And that's certainly what's going on.

"So, if you've got a pandemic, it's actually a 'plan-demic,' people planned it. Either it was Anthony Fauci or Bill Gates that planned this with their research, or they caused it with their research in China."

If a friend sends you a link from a strange looking website or forwards you an email, you should always be skeptical.

Do your research when this happens instead of blindly believing whatever the content says.

Remember the days when you'd get an email saying if you didn't forward it to at least 10 friends or you'd die? No one died.

So make sure you fact check everything you see before believing it.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Interesting, Conspiracy Theory

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie