Doctor Laughs at Orange County Republican Who Asked If Covid-19 Vaccine Contained a Tracking Device

Last updated on May 1st, 2021 at 10:28 am

Doctors and other medical professionals have had to face an uphill battle against a tide of disinformation about Covid-19-related matters, particularly on vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy has the potential to undercut the United States’s efforts to lower Covid caseloads and ease the burden on hospitals; much disinformation spreads through social media; since the pandemic began, conspiracy theorists have suggested––among other things––that the virus was manufactured by the Chinese to wage war against the U.S. and that the vaccine could be used to “track” individuals who receive it.

Neither of these claims has any basis in reality, and it was the second one with which a doctor had to deal with at an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting.

“In the vaccine, we heard about the injection of a tracking device. Is that being done anywhere in Orange County?” Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a Republican, can be seen and heard asking the county’s health care agency director, Clayton Chau, on video.

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

At this point, Chau laughed.

“I’m sorry. I just have to compose myself. There is not a vaccine with a tracking device embedded in it that I know of that exists in the world. Period,” he said.

You can hear the exchange in the video below.

The question arose as those present at the meeting discussed the prospect of vaccine passports. Unfounded fears about them persist; the White House earlier this month rejected vaccine passports.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.