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Bill Gates, bogeyman of virus conspiracy theorists
h/t HotAir[Yahoo] ...A video accusing Gates of wanting "to eliminate 15 percent of the population" through vaccination and electronic microchips has racked up nearly two million views on YouTube. Similar allegations "exploded" between January and April, Smith told AFP. - EXPLOITING THE CRISIS - Since the start of the crisis, AFP Fact Check has debunked dozens of anti-Gates rumours circulating on platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram in languages including English, French, Spanish, Polish and Czech. A number of accusations, including posts claiming that the FBI arrested Gates for biological terrorism or that he supports a Western plot to poison Africans, share a common thread. They accuse the tycoon of exploiting the crisis, whether it is to "control people" or make money from selling vaccines. "These conspiracies are powerful enough to drive down institutional trust around health organisations, and as a result, possibly drive down vaccination rates, which is worrying," Smith said. Gates' vocal criticism of US President Donald Trump and support for vaccine development made him "the perfect scapegoat for a crisis that emerges on the intersection of technology and (medical) science," Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius, a social sciences researcher at Finland's University of Helsinki, wrote in a university blog post. It is not the first time Gates has found himself at the mercy of conspiracy theorists. When Zika virus broke out in 2015 in Brazil, he was one of several powerful Western figures blamed for the disease. Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-05-20 |
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