Over the past few weeks, I’ve addressed some of the conspiracy fallacies being spread around even by Christians. In response to these blogs, I’ve had people comment, question, agree and disagree. And that’s all fine. After all, that’s what blogs are written for ~ to encourage discussion and debate.

What fascinates me though, is some people’s propensity to send a link to a YouTube clip, news article, or Facebook post as the final word. Little is done to check its source or accuracy: “I saw this, and it contradicts what you’re saying, so you’re wrong.” That’s their message over and over. And so, this week, I thought I’d address some of the current COVID myths:

The Depopulation Agenda

After last week’s blog defending Bill Gates I had many people give me information as to why this man is evil. One reason is that Bill Gates believes in depopulation. Misconceptions and misinformation have been spread by conspiracy “news” sites such as Your News Wire (Now Newspunch).

Depopulation is NOT killing or sterilising people by injecting them with vaccines. Depopulation is about creating an environment that reduces infant mortality. Due to high infant mortality rates in some countries, couples choose to have a larger number of children so that at least some will survive. Bill Gates is not interested in using vaccines to reduce the population by using them as an agent of death or a tool to sterilise unsuspecting masses. Instead, Gates is interested in keeping more children alive to reduce the need for parents to have more children, limiting the overall population growth rate.

And, think of this from a Christian perspective. Imagine the trauma that parents face by losing many children. Reducing child mortality enhances life, prosperity, and wellbeing. It brings some heaven to earth as The Lord’s Prayer says. And so, depopulation is not about reducing the world’s population but instead slowing the rate at which it grows.

Covid-19 is Just Flu

“We the body of Christ can’t gather because of the flu,” someone wrote in a blog comment this week. But COVID-19 is not the flu.

2019 was the second-worst flu season on record. Over 300,000 people were infected with the flu, and sadly 902 died in Australia. The death rate was not higher because most people in Australia have some immunity to the flu, either through previous illness or immunisation. This means if they catch the flu, they are likely to experience a milder illness.

We have highly effective vaccines available for the flu. Studies have shown that people who have the vaccine tend to avoid contracting the virus or, if they do, experience milder illness and are less likely to require hospitalisation. They are also less likely to pass on the virus, which reduces community transmission. For those who do contract the flu, there are effective treatments available. Antiviral medications are widely used and have been shown to reduce the symptoms and the risk of developing severe illness from the flu virus.

Now consider COVID-19. It is at least 30 times deadlier than the seasonal flu and four times more infectious. There is no vaccine and no proven treatment for COVID-19. 15% of people infected with COVID-19 have a severe infection, requiring oxygen, and 5% are acute infections, requiring ventilation. The length of stay in the hospital is much longer for COVID-19 compared to the flu. 25% of survivors have severe organ damage. Many will develop ongoing chronic health problems due to the virus, including heart and lung complications and post-viral fatigue. With no vaccine and no effective treatments, COVID-19 is far deadlier than the flu. This is why we have lockdowns.

Vaccines are Harmful

Sadly, the “Gates’ vaccines used to sterilise Kenyan women” conspiracy is once again doing the rounds. This has been debunked numerous times, but it surfaces from time to time. People blindly share it without doing sufficient fact-checking. The sterilisation claim is more than 20 years old. It has been repeatedly debunked by the World Health Organisation and others ever since.

For those who may be concerned about the impact of vaccines, there are significant safety measures. Australia has an incredibly robust and rigorous vaccine approval process. Besides, EVERY adverse reaction to a vaccine is monitored. Some people DO have adverse reactions – the number of adverse reactions is hundreds out of millions vaccinated. Usually, it has to do with pain at the injection site. Tiredness and irritability are also adverse reactions. Hospitalisation is very, very, very rare.

Vaccines Made From Aborted Babies

Others are concerned that the COVID-19 vaccine will be “ethically tainted” by aborted foetal cells. It is true that some vaccines, and some of the COVID-19 vaccines, are developed using cell lines from legally aborted foetuses (two from the 1960s). No foetus has been aborted to create a vaccine.

Vaccines are researched, developed, and produced through the use of laboratory-grown human cells. The vaccines themselves contain none of the original cells. The Catholic Church, which opposes abortion, has stated: “vaccination should not be refused on moral grounds in cases where the public health benefits of vaccination may outweigh the use of aborted foetal tissue to develop some vaccines when an alternative vaccine created from cell lines that are not morally problematic are not available.”

I understand some people’s concerns about this issue. But, if we are genuinely pro-life, our concern must be the protection of the living. As noted already, COVID-19 is an incredibly infectious virus that is extremely dangerous to many people and deadly to some.

Covid-19 Vaccine Microchip

Some have suggested that the eventual COVID-19 vaccine is a ploy by the cabal to inject us with a microchip. This is all part of the one-world government plot. It’s also an incorrect interpretation of Revelation chapter 13.

While it is true that Microsoft has a patent application with the numbers 060606 in it, this is for a system that rewards physical activity with cryptocurrency. It has nothing to do with injectable microchips. In any case, the technology to insert a trackable microchip does not exist at this time. If and when it does, the hypodermic needles would be considerable. For this to be possible, every doctor, nurse, and medical professional worldwide would have to be in on the conspiracy. This is beyond impossible.

Covid-19’s Inflated Numbers

A comment on my Facebook thread said, “NYT posted. Corona numbers in the US inflated by 90%.” No, the NYT did not report this. The New York Times responded to a claim made by Donald Trump suggesting the death count was inflated. The opposite is probably true. NYT reported, “the death toll is probably far higher than what is publicly known. People are dying at their houses and nursing homes without ever being tested, and deaths early this year were likely misidentified as influenza or described only as pneumonia.”

If anything, the Covid-19 numbers that are reported are lower than the real numbers.

It’s 5G’s Fault

“The 5G network apparently weakens the human immune system, and COVID-19 is just a symptom of this weakened immunity” ~ that’s one of the conspiracy myths currently doing the rounds. While 5G uses higher radio frequencies than previous generations (in the 30-300 gigahertz range), there’s not enough energy to break chemical bonds or remove electrons when in contact with human tissue.

5G is approved by the federal government’s Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency as not having more intense radiation’s adverse health effects. Even when you put your 5G mobile to your ear to make a call, radiation exposure is well below the recommended safety level. 5G radiation can’t penetrate skin or allow a virus to penetrate the skin. There is no evidence 5G radio frequencies cause or exacerbate the spread of the coronavirus. Radiation and viruses exist in different forms that do not interact. One is a biological phenomenon and the other lives on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Event 201

The Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hosted Event 201 in October 2019. Event 201 was a simulation on how to respond to a global coronavirus pandemic. Obviously, this has been viewed as too coincidental ~ or something more insidious!

Johns Hopkins has received a lot of questions about this and made a statement on their website.

In recent years, the world has seen a growing number of epidemic events, amounting to approximately 200 events annually. These events are increasing, and they are disruptive to health, economies, and society. It is only right that medical & benevolent institutions and governments should prepare for these. I see it as preparation for the inevitable.

I hope my comments help you sift through all the information, myths, lies, and conspiracies that are doing the rounds. I encourage you to place your faith firmly in The One who holds this world in his hands. Let’s confess with the psalmist, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Ps 16:8).

As I’ve noted a few times in recent blogs, conspiracy theories are sadly one of pandemics’ symptoms. But no one has copped more flack from conspiracy theorists during the COVID-19 Pandemic than Bill Gates. Consider these as just an example:

  • Bill Gates briefed the CIA about a “mind-altering vaccine.”
  • Italy has called for his arrest.
  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is spending billions to ensure that all medical and dental injections and procedures include tracking microchips.
  • Gates said a coronavirus vaccine would “permanently alter your DNA.”
  • Mr Gates has admitted, “his COVID-19 vaccine might kill nearly 1 million people.”
  • He leads a class of global elites.
  • He is leading efforts to depopulate the world.
  • Bill Gates has been warning of a worldwide pandemic for years (true) and actually brought the virus into the world (untrue)
  • The Gates Foundation has tested vaccines on children in Africa and India, leading to thousands of deaths and irreversible injuries. One post even suggested he is facing trial in India.
  • He is accused of rolling out a tetanus vaccine in Kenya that includes abortion drugs.
  • He is linked with China’s communist party.

People share these conspiracies as fact on social media. Others share the posts with little or no fact-checking. And, off it goes—viral rubbish circulated as truth.

Why Bill Gates?

Rory Smith, from fact-checkers First Draft News writes, “[Bill Gates] is this kind of voodoo doll that all these communities are pricking with their own conspiracies. And it is unsurprising he has become the voodoo doll – because he has always been the face of public health.” 

Of course, Bill & Melinda Gates are easy targets. They are famous, powerful, and rich. Before the Gates, George Soros, the Koch brothers, the Rothschilds, and the Rockefellers were all the targets of conspiracies. As a young Christian, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers funded the Illuminati that would introduce the one-world government and the antichrist. How wrong I was.

In a survey conducted by Ipsos MORI and the Allensbach Institute, respondents in four countries were presented with the following statement: “Those who are very rich and want more and more power are to blame for many of the major problems in the world, such as financial or humanitarian issues.”

In Germany, 50% of interviewees agreed with this statement, roughly twice as many as in Great Britain and in the United States (25% and 21%, respectively).

Trying to Find a Scapegoat

Crises like the current pandemic are often complicated in nature. There are aspects of the virus, treatment, and ultimate cure that are difficult to understand. It’s so much easier to attribute the crisis to something sinister and straightforward.

It’s caused by these wealthy, influential people who have a malevolent agenda. Psychologist Peter Glick put it this way, “Scapegoat movements attract followers by offering simpler, culturally plausible explanations and solutions for shared negative events.”

What concerns me more than anything, though, is the number of Christians – you know, followers of Jesus, The Truth – who are propagating these lies.

Rather than undertaking diligent research through credible sources, these theorists blindly agree with and share their “truth”. Behaviour like this is inconsistent with people who uphold the Gospel of Jesus and are hopefully filled with the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13).

Don’t Walk Blindly

Christianity’s credibility is seriously eroded, especially by conservative, evangelical & Pentecostal Christians (my tribe). As mentioned in previous blogs, many people in these groups hold to a modern understanding of Bible prophecy, popularised by a cult leader.

Many Christians today are waiting for an antichrist, one-world government, cashless society, and great tribulation and often interpret crises as forerunners to these events. It’s no wonder then that these same people will fall hook, line, and sinker for conspiracy theories that back up their interpretation of Bible prophecy.

Beliefs such as these are powerful. I mean, they are based on the Bible, the Word of God, right? And so, rather than living life to bring heaven to earth (as Jesus taught his followers to pray), these Christians live with an expectation that hell on earth is just around the corner. A crisis is relished, as long as it doesn’t come too close. Governments are merely puppets controlled by a group rich, powerful, and famous people (a cabal or cartel) who have a hidden agenda of world domination.

Many of these conspiracies contradict each other. Suppose you consider all the theories and conspiracy trends. This is what you arrive at: Covid-19 doesn’t exist; it’s a hoax, a phantom virus made in a lab near Wuhan, or the USA, by the Chinese or the Americans. It’s harmless, and just an excuse to limit our freedom, and it’s deadly and is being used for population control. It’s being released so that we need to be given a vaccine to survive, so the microchip injected into us when we received the vaccine will also kill us to reduce the population to stop global warming, which isn’t even a thing. This is so the looney left can spread socialism and communism so they can control all the people. These people are already dead and already controllable because of the microchips. And all of that is actually just a hoax to distract us from the rollout of 5G, which is designed to kill us for one of the reasons already noted above!

An Apology to the Gates Family

I hope this minor rant will demonstrate how ridiculous all of this posturing really is. And I think we need to give a massive apology to Bill and Melinda Gates. I’ve never met them, but I’d like to one day. What I’ve seen and read about them has always impressed me. Melinda Gates’ Catholic faith appears to be the motivating force behind the Gates Foundation, which they created in 2000. Since then, they have given away more than $45 billion (approximately half of their wealth). Their priorities are fighting diseases, reducing extreme poverty, and improving maternal health – the foundation partners with many organisations. Faith-based groups – including Catholic organisations, World Vision, Lutheran groups, and the Salvation Army – are key recipients of more than 125 foundation grants.

I know that Bill Gates is aware of the conspiracy theories circulating about him. He’s addressed them publicly. What concerns me is that he is also probably aware that Christian people are amongst their biggest spreaders. And so, I apologise to Bill and Melinda Gates. Please don’t think all followers of Jesus are like this. Many of us appreciate the work you and Melinda are doing, and we don’t believe you have an insidious agenda. Like us, we assume you have the vision to make this world a better place, to create heaven on earth.

As for the conspiracy theorists, I know you will write to me and give me “proof” that I’m wrong. It’ll come in the form of a YouTube clip, or meme, or article from some dodgy website. So, let me save you the time. I’ve done the research, and you’re wrong. But one thing I need to let you know. The term “conspiracy theory” was invented by the CIA. Fact!