{"id":1236,"date":"2021-04-14T17:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2021-04-14T17:34:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T22:34:02","slug":"fact-check-did-the-pentagon-develop-a-covid-detecting-microchip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=1236","title":{"rendered":"Fact Check: Did the Pentagon Develop a COVID-Detecting Microchip"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"360\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 640 \/ 360;\" width=\"640\" autoplay controls src=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Fact-Check_-Did-the-Pentagon-Develop-a-COVID-Detecting-Microchip_.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rock the globe, scientists are having to contend with conspiracy theories and misinformation related to the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In some cases, this results in\u00a0vaccine hesitancy\u2014an unwillingness to receive a COVID vaccine because of distrust or fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some conspiracy theorists allege that governments, or maybe\u00a0Bill Gates, are using vaccines as a way to inject people with microchips. So when claims emerged that the U.S. had built a COVID-sensing microchip that could be injected into the body, it attracted attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Claim<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Some prominent\u00a0Twitter\u00a0users complained about the alleged chip&#8217;s invasiveness and linked it to conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right-wing activist Chuck Woolery linked to an article that referred to the technology as a &#8220;microchip&#8221; and called it an &#8220;Orwellian nightmare.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of the Twitter claims were based on Sunday night&#8217;s\u00a0CBS\u00a0<em>60 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0interview with Dr. Matt Hepburn, a military doctor who formerly worked for DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the interview, Hepburn said he had been told by DARPA to &#8220;take pandemics off the table&#8221; and discussed some ongoing military research projects, including a sensor that is placed underneath the skin that uses a light signal to indicate whether or not someone is ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"continueReadBreak\">He said: &#8220;That signal means you are going to have symptoms tomorrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Facts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology does go under the skin, but it is neither a microchip nor does it detect COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to&nbsp;<em>Newsweek<\/em>, Hepburn said his interview had caused confusion. &#8220;No microchip, no electronics, none of that stuff,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It wouldn&#8217;t tell you if you had influenza or if you had COVID.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology is actually a hydrogel, a spongy substance designed to have a similar composition to the surrounding tissue so that the body does not attempt to reject it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using chemical reactions, the hydrogel can be altered to respond to a number of substances in the body. When it does, it glows very dimly and this light can then be detected using a sensor placed outside of the skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One tissue substance that the hydrogel can detect is lactate. Hepburn said these lactate levels can indicate whether someone is about to get ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If you can sense tissue-level lactate, what happens when someone is starting to get sick is that those tissue lactate levels start to rise,&#8221; he told&nbsp;<em>Newsweek<\/em>. &#8220;And especially if they start rising pretty high it means you&#8217;re getting pretty sick pretty fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It just tells you that there might be something wrong, and you would complement that with a specific COVID test, or test for other pathogens, so you could then make a pathogen-specific diagnosis of what&#8217;s making you sick.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using an analogy of a car engine light, Hepburn said: &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t tell you what&#8217;s wrong with your engine, but it says &#8216;you might want to take a look.'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology was developed in a joint effort between U.S. government agencies such as DARPA and JPEO-CBRND\u2014where Hepburn works\u2014and California-based private biotech firm Profusa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Ruling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>False.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0Pentagon\u00a0has not developed a COVID-sensing microchip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A private U.S. firm, in cooperation with government agencies, has developed a chemical biosensor that measures whether or not someone might be about to get sick, possibly with COVID but also with other illnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Newsweek, in partnership with NewsGuard, is dedicated to providing accurate and verifiable vaccine and health information. With NewsGuard&#8217;s HealthGuard browser extension, users can verify if a website is a trustworthy source of health information. Visit the Newsweek VaxFacts website to learn more and to download the HealthGuard browser extension.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rock the globe, scientists are having to contend with conspiracy theories and misinformation related to the outbreak. In some cases, this results in\u00a0vaccine hesitancy\u2014an unwillingness to receive a COVID <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=1236\" title=\"Fact Check: Did the Pentagon Develop a COVID-Detecting Microchip\">[read more]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-video","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"post_format-post-format-video"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fact Check: Did the Pentagon Develop a COVID-Detecting Microchip -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=1236\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fact Check: Did the Pentagon Develop a COVID-Detecting Microchip -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rock the globe, scientists are having to contend with conspiracy theories and misinformation related to the outbreak. 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