No, the government doesn’t use a ‘national ID’ to track you after receiving COVID-19 vaccine

A nearly year-old video pushing a conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccinations will be used to track your movements utilizing artificial intelligence and a biological "national ID" is again circulating on social media.

The original video, which is over an hour long, claims without any evidence that COVID-19 — short for "coronavirus disease 2019" — actually stands for "certificate of vaccination ID AI." The "AI," the video explains, is derived from the fact that "A’ is the first letter of the alphabet and "I" is the ninth.

The video was originally posted May 1, 2020, by pastor and YouTube evangelist Robert Breaker.. An edited and condensed version of the video was published on Facebook by an evangelical group on April 9.

"What the elites’ desire and plan is is to inject you with a vaccine — and it’s not just going to be a vaccine for your health, it’s going to inject into you other things," Breaker says in the video. "And it’s going to inject into you some things that are going to change your DNA ... it’s got some sort of small nanotechnology. It’s got some sort of small metal something in it, and what it does ... is they’re planting 5G everywhere."

The April 9 post was flagged as part of efforts by Facebook to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

While the video in this post includes a number of conspiracy theories concerning the pandemic, we focused on its central claim — that the government will gain the ability to track you with a "national ID."

The speaker in the video suggests that the ID is a unique biological signature of sorts contained in the vaccine itself and that some sort of AI system will be able to communicate with this so-called national ID via "some sort of small nanotechnology." 

Let’s break this down in two parts.

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First, the federal government has said it will not mandate issuance of a proof-of-vaccination card or, in this case, a "national ID." While it’s true there are businesses in the private sector that are considering proof of vaccination, it’s a far cry from a government-imposed national mandate.

Second, to further back up his claim, the speaker references a patent — patent number is WO2020060606 — that he says is owned by Microsoft and would allow third-parties to monitor the location and medical information of people who have been vaccinated. 

A search of publicly available records shows that Microsoft has filed an application for a patent that is still pending — but no actual patent, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. But the concept pitched in this application, a program used to pay people with cryptocurrency,  has nothing to do with injecting anything into anyones’ bodies. 

Finally, ingredients used in the vaccines approved by the FDA for emergency use are publicly listed for Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Nothing in the lists suggests anything but the ordinary substances of vaccines.

Beyond the falsehoods stated about the patent application, Breaker, the video’s speaker, also says that vaccines contained "nanotechnology" in the form of "small metal" bits. We rated a similar claim Pants on Fire.

Lipid nanoparticles make up part of the ingredient list for the mRNA vaccines, but the term "nanoparticle" refers only to size.

The claim here that Microsoft patented 5G-powered tracking "nanotechnology" that were used in the development of any vaccines is also false.There is no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccinations, once injected, create an invisible, trackable ID in the bodies of those inoculated.  

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!