Today, Sunday July 26, the @ABQJournal published a half-page ad from a Pennsylvania-based group that, among other things, claims any COVID-19 vaccine will contain a secret biometric tattoo that will be used to track you.

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The Albuquerque Journal is the paper of record for ABQ. It reaches well over 100,000 people on Sundays, and is available statewide. Those who ran the ad know this, and they want to reach those people with this disinformation.

Maybe those in charge at the Journal don’t see a problem with this ad. It’s true that most people who read it are going to roll their eyes, have a chuckle, and move on to the next page. *Most,* but not all. Some will believe it, and again, those who paid for the ad know this.

Some people will read the ad, and bits about being tracked by the vaccine will sit in their brains. They won’t remember where they heard about it, but as they hear it elsewhere, they’ll start to believe it. Others will flat out say, “I saw a thing in the Journal about how...”

This sort of ad undermines the work the Journal’s reporters do. As someone who covers the coronavirus, I know it’s difficult to convey ever-changing science to readers. It's a difficult job made even harder by having to combat baseless claims printed in your own paper.

During a pandemic, readers should be able to trust that their newspaper is bringing them facts as they become available. An ad like this—one that propagates a baseless conspiracy theory—undermines the work of reporters and the trustworthiness of the paper.

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