In a sea of ridiculous conspiracy theories that have festered throughout 2020, the one rising above the rest must be the 5G/COVID-19 vaccine microchip/Bill Gates insanity. As a quick recap, some internet users believe that the implementation of 5G networks is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the vaccine will be used as a vehicle to insert 5G-compatible chips into the unsuspecting public for control, tracking, or population culling. All of this, apparently, has been orchestrated by the dastardly Bill Gates. 

In the quest for the "truth", some Italian conspiracy theorists are now claiming to have discovered the chip schematics that will be inserted with the vaccine. Labeled ‘COVID-19 5G CHIP DIAGRAM: CONFIDENTIAL’, the image has been circulating around Twitter and riling up supporters that believe they have cracked the secret conspiracy. 

This was before Mario Fusco, a software engineer for Redhat, took to Twitter to reveal that this was not in fact a bio-implant – it was the electrical diagram of a guitar pedal. 

It isn’t certain exactly why conspiracy theorists latched on to this piece of circuitry, but some have speculated the ‘5G FREQ’ region is to blame. Yet if you study the diagram closer, you will also spot ‘BASS’, ‘TREBLE’ and – perhaps the biggest giveaway – ‘FOOTSWITCH’. Those familiar with electronics will quickly spot some classic diodes and various giveaways that this is not a global security threat, but instead the source of some great distorted sounds.

Specifically, this schematic is for the Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, one of the most popular guitar distortion pedals out there. Alongside this, the circuitry doesn’t exactly display space-age nanotech that could fit in your bloodstream, but instead some more traditional OpAmps that have been in use since 1967. 

So unless Bill Gates is planning the world’s largest guitar shred, the conspiracy theorists might’ve hit a dead end. 

In true form, Twitter has taken to roasting those that got caught up in the hoax. As user ‘cat what looks like a duck’ put it: “it will not prevent COVID, but it will rock your world”. 

If you’re looking for accurate coverage of the latest vaccine news, head over to our vaccine tracker. We promise there are no musical instruments in any of them.