A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll published this Friday found that 44 percent of Republicans believe in a fraudulent conspiracy theory that claims Bill Gates is going to use vaccines to secretly implant Americans with microchips to track their whereabouts.
Only 26 percent of Republicans who took part in the survey think the claim is false.
When it comes to Fox News viewers, the number was larger, with exactly 50 percent of those surveyed believing the claim is true.
“The new Yahoo News/YouGov survey shows that skepticism about a possible coronavirus vaccine is already taking root on the right,” Andrew Romano of Yahoo News reports. “There is little partisan disagreement over vaccines in general: 83 percent of Americans consider childhood vaccines either ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ safe, and more than 80 percent of Democrats, independents and Republicans share this view. The same goes for concerns over the safety of “fast-tracking” the vaccine through the typical research and regulatory process: 73 percent of Americans are at least somewhat concerned, with little difference by party affiliation.”
