Since January, reports have appeared regularly that the 5G network would cause or exacerbate the corona virus. Experts have said that this is fake news, but new messages about 5G and corona continue to appear on Facebook. Where do these theories come from?
Last year, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) determined that 5G will boost protests against cell towers. On September 9, 2019, a protest against 5G place, where several hundred people participated. The protesters believe that 5G has a harmful effect on health. N Checks previously wrote that there is no evidence for this.
Since January, it has been claimed that 5G would make people more susceptible to COVID-19, or that 5G might even be the cause of COVID-19 instead of the coronavirus.
In Britain, false claims of a link between the 5G network and the coronavirus have resulted in cell towers being destroyed and set on fire in several places. It is still unknown whether 5G demonstrators in the Netherlands were the instigators of the various fires in cell towers last week. It is well known that conspiracy theories about 5G and the coronavirus are also widely shared in the Netherlands.
Claims are not correct
The existence of the coronavirus has been demonstrated and the virus is transmitted from person to person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is now being studied in several labs worldwide.
Major outbreaks of the coronavirus also occur in countries where 5G has not yet been rolled out, such as Iran. Also in the Netherlands, the 5G network has not been rolled out and is only tested at a few locations. Thus, 5G cannot be the cause of the disease caused by the coronavirus.
In addition, several experts indicated that 5G can have no effect on your immune system because the radiation from the cellular network is not strong enough to damage cells. Press agency AP showed that a map that would show that the 5G rollout in the US occurred in the same places where there are now many cases of COVID-19 is incorrect.
Who spreads conspiracy theories about 5G?
In the Netherlands, there are several closed Facebook groups in which people who are against 5G have united. The largest of these has over 33,000 members and was only created on March 24 this year. Many messages are shared in the group saying that 5G helps spread the corona virus.
–
–
–
–
This Facebook group also shares a January newspaper article, which probably first linked 5G to the coronavirus. On the regional pages of the Belgian The Latest NewOn January 22, an interview was published with a Flemish GP who organized demonstrations against 5G.
In this interview, the GP, without having any evidence, insinuates that there may be a connection between 5G and the coronavirus. The last news later removed this article, because according to the chief editor “did not meet the quality requirements we set”.
This occurred according to tech website Wired not that this theory spread in various Dutch and English speaking Facebook groups. Several American and British celebrities have supported claims about a link between the coronavirus and 5G below.
Manipulated screenshot
In the Netherlands, a manipulated screenshot of the website of The Telegraph shared. According to the distributors of this screenshot, there was an article on the website of The Telegraph in which it was reported that South Korean researchers have found an association between 5G and the coronavirus. This article has never been on the website of this newspaper.
A journalist from The Telegraph felt that this post was most likely first shared by an anonymous Twitter account, then distributed by Niburu, among others. A website that is full of conspiracy theories about, for example, illuminati and ‘satanic sects’.
—–
Follow the latest developments around the virus in us live blog.
The coronavirus in short
–
–
–
– .
