These are strange times indeed, and the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines are part of a government conspiracy to track people has now reached new levels of silly in Italy.
A group has been caught out sharing a diagram online and claiming it to be the schematic for an injectable 'Covid-19 5G chip'. Except it's not – it's the reworked schematic for a custom true bypass version of the Boss Metal Zone distortion pedal.
Mario Fusco, a senior software engineer at Redhat, flagged up the glaring error on Twitter. And whoever edited the schematic to support their conspiracy claims added '5G Freq' but failed to remove telltale terms like footswitch, bass, treble and volume.
Here in Italy people started to share this figure claiming that this is the diagram of the 5G chip that has been inserted in the covid vaccine.In reality it is the electric circuit of a guitar pedal and I believe that putting it in the covid vaccine has been an excellent idea💡 pic.twitter.com/qXKnv7VVlyDecember 28, 2020
Mario was understandably bemused. “Here in Italy people started to share this figure claiming that this is the diagram of the 5G chip that has been inserted in the COVID vaccine,” he tweeted. “In reality it is the electric circuit of a guitar pedal.”
Twitter responded in kind. with a barrage of mockery towards the conspiracy theorists. We'll leave you with are some of our favourites:
What do think the 'footswitch' does if Bill Gates activates it? Is the real conspiracy to force us all to tap dance?January 2, 2021
It'll require an external power source too, maybe it comes with a USB-C plug to recharge in the elbows.January 2, 2021
It's not this one, but it sure as hell should be: pic.twitter.com/Fdidh6Ov3wDecember 28, 2020
If I get this vaccine will I be able to play Voodoo Chile just like Jimi? Because that beats the hell out of actually practicing....January 2, 2021
These people with their conspiracy theories are so tiresome, it’s always “wah -wah-wah“. pic.twitter.com/ZQavpQDhIbJanuary 2, 2021
![Eric Clapton and his gold-plated Cry Baby: [Left] a black and white image of Clapton playing his Bigsby-equipped Gibson Les Paul standard live on stage with Cream.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aPowLRdfjdvVAiwU8PYuBh-1280-80.jpg.webp)
“We are honoured that our company’s relationship with the legendary guitar player continues to this day”: Dunlop salutes wah pedal pioneer Eric Clapton with a gold-plated signature Cry Baby
“Honestly I’d never even heard of Klons prior to a year-and-a-half ago”: KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson on the greatest reverb/delay ever made and the noise-rock essentials on his fly-in pedalboard
“We are honoured that our company’s relationship with the legendary guitar player continues to this day”: Dunlop salutes wah pedal pioneer Eric Clapton with a gold-plated signature Cry Baby
“Honestly I’d never even heard of Klons prior to a year-and-a-half ago”: KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson on the greatest reverb/delay ever made and the noise-rock essentials on his fly-in pedalboard
