evidence: How Bill Gates became the voodoo doll of Covid conspiracies - Published [...] Theories falsely linking Bill Gates to the coronavirus were mentioned 1.2 million times on television or social media between February and April, according to a study by The New York Times and Zignal Labs, external. [...] More than a quarter of all Americans and 44% of Republicans believe that Bill Gates wants to use a Covid-19 vaccine to implant microchips under people's skin, according to a survey from Yahoo News and YouGov.