December 14, 2021
Since the start of the pandemic, billionaire health philanthropist Bill Gates has been a target for bizarre Covid conspiracy theories.
Now, Gates says, those rumors and pieces of disinformation are keeping many Americans from getting vaccinated against Covid — and delaying the end of the pandemic by doing so.
In a blog post last week, Gates wrote that “conspiracy theories that unfortunately involve me” have impacted Covid vaccine uptake in the United States, adding that he expected vaccination rates to be much higher by now. To date, 61% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against Covid, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least 83 other countries or territories have higher fully vaccinated rates, according to Our World in Data, including countries in every continent except Antarctica, which didn’t have any reported data.
Read more at CNBC News.