Efforts to implant microchips in humans are gaining new attention and criticism this week. A video highlighting the chip implant efforts by a Swedish company went viral on Friday sparking new fears and outrage across social media.
The video posted by the South China Morning Post shows the so-called convenience of having a person’s COVID vaccination passport uploaded to a microchip about the size of a grain of rice, which is then implanted in a person’s arm or hand between the thumb and forefinger. The chip implants are being touted by Epicenter, a Stockholm-based company.
The chip can be read with pre-existing technology, Epicenter said. The company has been working on what it calls “human-compatible” tech for years.
“Implants are a very versatile technology that can be used for many different things,” Epicenter’s Chief Disruption Officer Hannes Sjöblad explains in the video. “And right now it is very convenient to have a COVID passport always accessible on your implant.”
Beep boop beep: Your vaccination record has been verified pic.twitter.com/dpAkSCudxf
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) December 17, 2021
The chip uses Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, the same as in contactless credit cards or mobile payments. Its data can be read by any smartphone with the same technology.
As CBN News reported earlier this month, Sweden has enacted new rules that require individuals to have a vaccine passport at all events with more than 100 people. As a result, a number of Swedish citizens have opted to implant microchips with their vaccine passports into their hands.
Aftonbladet, a Swedish daily paper, reported since that announcement the number of people who have chosen to receive a microchip in place of carrying a passport has increased.
Around 6,000 people in Sweden have had a chip inserted in their hands since 2014, according to Euronews.com. Swedes have swapped out carrying keys, train tickets, and ID Cards for the convenience of an embedded microchip.
Steven Northam is the director of BioTeq, the UK’s leading human technology implant specialist.
“In 10-15 years, microchipped humans will be an everyday occurrence,” he previously told Metro.co.uk. BioTeq already offers already its clients a choice of implants, including NFC or RFID (Radio Frequency ID).
Biochips as they are called, have already been offered by some U.S. companies to their employees. Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based technology company, became the first company in the U.S. to offer its employees similar free microchip implants CBN News reported in August 2017.
Some people saw this move to a biochip as a genius idea, others viewed it as a scene straight out of a creepy sci-fi film or even a precursor to the “mark of the Beast” from the book of Revelation.
“It will happen to everybody,” Noelle Chesley, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told USA Today at the time. “Maybe not my generation, but certainly that of my kids.”
Gene Munster, an investor, researcher, and technology analyst also told USA Today at the time that human microchip implants will become mainstream in 50 years.
Users Respond to Epicenter Video
But several users on social media responded negatively over the weekend to the idea of getting an implant, period. One called it, “The Mark of the Beast.”
Another user wrote, “Patent number 666.”
And a user responded, “Exactly what it is. Biblical prophecy is unfolding right before our eyes.”
Even U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, (R-CO) retweeted the South China Morning Post’s video, writing: “Hey, remember when this was a conspiracy?”
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