Several social media reports have claimed that a photo of Bill Gates receiving the COVID-19 vaccine was staged, and that the man in the photo is not the billionaire philanthropist, but an actor. There is no evidence to support this assertion.
Examples can be seen (here and here).
The claim began to spread after Gates posted a picture on his Twitter account showing how he received the vaccination (here).
‘One of the benefits of 65 is that I’m eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. I got my first dose this week, and I feel great ”, is the caption of the picture.
Throughout the pandemic, false conspiracy theories about Gates spread the use of vaccines to insert detectable microchips into humans (here).
Following Gates’ report on his vaccination, social media users claimed that the man in the Twitter photo is not Gates, but an actor.
The evidence for this claims that the ‘fake Bill Gates’ have ears that are shaped differently from the ‘real Bill Gates’.
There is no credible evidence to support this claim.
Even though she looks slightly arched on the vaccination photo, it’s probably due to the elastic of his mask pulling it forward.
On Gates’ blog, a photo of him with a mask shows that his ear was pulled forward in a similar way (here).
His facial features also look like he does when he is not wearing glasses (as seen here).
A Gates family spokesman told Reuters he received the Moderna vaccine in mid-January.
‘Bill received the Moderna vaccine because it’s what’s available to him. He would have been very happy to receive any of the vaccines that have been approved and available “, the spokesperson said in an email.
‘He received it in mid-January when it was made available to people aged 65 and older. It was administered by a registered nurse at a medical facility ”.
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that Bill Gates is not shown on the image and that he also did not receive the vaccine.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.