Kanye West says he had the coronavirus but peddles unfounded conspiracies about vaccines

Kanye West, who has announced his intention to run for president of the United States, told Forbes in an interview published Wednesday he had the coronavirus in February.

The rapper, 43, said he suffered "chills" and "shaking in the bed" when he had the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has so far infected at least 2,996,333 Americans and killed at least 131,481, according to data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University. He treated the illness by "taking hot showers" and "looking at videos" that told him how to best treat the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, he told Forbes.

"I remember someone had told me Drake had the coronavirus and my response was Drake can't be sicker than me!" West said.

In the same interview, West offered conspiracy theories about a potential vaccine and offered no evidence to support them.

"It's so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed… So when they say the way we're going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, I'm extremely cautious," he said.

A growing movement in the US against vaccines has already caused diseases once thought to be eradicated — like the Measles — to return in some communities. Some so-called "anti-vaxxers" have already said they won't support a COVID-19 vaccine.

West suggested a demonic influence behind vaccinations, baselessly saying it was related to chip implants, and that it would stop people from getting into heaven.

"That's the mark of the beast," West told Forbes' Randall Lane. "They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can't cross the gates of heaven. I'm sorry when I say they, the humans that have the Devil inside them. And the sad thing is that, the saddest thing is that we all won't make it to heaven, that there'll be some of us that do not make it."

A vaccine is essential for a return to normality
Experts, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have warned that a return to a pre-coronavirus lifestyle might not be possible before a vaccine is developed.

There more than two-dozen coronavirus vaccines expected to begin human testing before the end of the year with testing of 16 candidates already underway in clinical trials. There's no evidence that any of them will stop you from getting into heaven, would cause paralysis, or involves having a chip implanted in you. Some experts are hopeful that a vaccine will be "within our grasp" by December of this year, as Business Insider's Aylin Woodward reported.

West has long trafficked in conspiracy theories about diseases. In 2005, he said AIDs was a "man-made" disease engineered by the US government and "placed in Africa" to kill Black people.