Major Utah GOP donor says 'the Jews' are using COVID-19 vaccines to 'euthanize the American people'

On Tuesday, Deseret News reported that Dave Bateman, the cofounder of tech company Entrata and a major financial backer of the Republican Party, mass-emailed several tech executives and elected officials claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are a Jewish plot to depopulate the world.

“I write this email knowing that many of you will think I’m crazy after reading it,” wrote Bateman. “I believe there is a sadistic effort underway to euthanize the American people. It’s obvious now. It’s undeniable, yet no one is doing anything. Everyone is discounting their own judgement and dismissing their intuition. I believe the Jews are behind this.”

Bateman didn't stop there, expounding on his ideas of how the Pope is a Jewish agent and there is a Jewish plot to create a one world government.

“For 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church and place a Jew covertly at the top,” Bateman continued. “It happened in 2013 with Pope Francis. I believe the pandemic and systematic extermination of billions of people will lead to an effort to consolidate all the countries in the world under a single flag with totalitarian rule. I know, it sounds bonkers. No one is reporting on it, but the Hasidic Jews in the US instituted a law for their people that they are not to be vaccinated for any reason.”

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According to the report, the email has been met with outrage from other Utah tech figures, with Elizabeth Converse of Silicon Slopes Commons stating, "This behavior and sentiment is despicable and does not reflect the attitudes of the Utah tech industry." And Adam Edmunds, the CEO of Entrata, said in statement that "We at Entrata firmly condemn antisemitism in any and all forms" and that Bateman has been removed from the board of directors

Pandemics have triggered anti-Semitic conspiracy theories throughout history, with the Black Death in Europe triggering a wave of Jewish pogroms over the bizarre belief Jews were poisoning wells. Even today, opponents of COVID-19 containment measures have been accused of anti-Semitic behavior, including using yellow Nazi patches to protest mask and vaccine rules.