Fact Check: AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine does NOT contain a Bluetooth chip
- By admaster -
- May 27, 2021
Posts sharing a video of a man allegedly showing Bluetooth capabilities after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are false. The vaccine does not contain a Bluetooth chip.
Examples can be seen here.
The video shows an unidentified man talking to the person recording the video. The man speaks about his experience of receiving the vaccine and says: “The only problem is that everywhere I go, everything is trying to connect to me man, like Bluetooth connect to me.”
“I get in the car, my car is trying to connect to me. I go home, my computer tries to connect. Like, my phone is trying to connect.”
The man then shows a notification on his phone which shows a Bluetooth pairing request with a device called “AstraZeneca_ChAdOx1-S”. In a second clip added to the video, it shows a television showing the same request as the man walks towards it.
There is no evidence to show that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine contains a Bluetooth chip or allows the receiver to gain Bluetooth capabilities.
Most devices with Bluetooth capabilities have a name that can be edited into any word. For example, any mobile phone’s name could be edited to show “AstraZeneca_ChAdOx1-S” and request to pair with another device, prompting the notification seen in the video on the mobile phone and television.
Reuters reached out to the user @al_janabi on TikTok, who appears to be the source of the clip, who did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
A number of countries have authorized the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use, as explained here .
A full list of ingredients for the vaccine can be seen here , which includes the recombinant, L-histidine, L-histidine hydrochloride monohydrate, magnesium chloride hexahydrate, polysorbate 80, ethanol, sucrose, sodium chloride, disodium edetate dihydrate, water for injections. There is no Bluetooth chip in the vaccine.
Bluetooth is a wireless technology that uses short-range radio waves to share data across devices in a small area, as explained here by Business Insider and Samsung here . An antenna-quipped chip with Bluetooth abilities (here) is unlikely to slip through AstraZeneca’s ingredient list unnoticed.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
VERDICT
False. The COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca does not contain a Bluetooth chip.