The archive / Technology and the internet
2019–2020 · Britain and worldwide
5G masts are spreading the coronavirus!
5G
Panic meter
The verdict
Conspiracy theories linked 5G to cancer and Covid-19. Radio waves cannot spread viruses – but several masts were set on fire.
Reality meter
What was said?
When 5G networks were rolled out in 2019, claims spread that the new technology caused cancer. In spring 2020, conspiracy theories linked 5G to the coronavirus pandemic: the masts had supposedly caused the disease or weakened people's immune systems.
The verdict: what happened next?
Radio waves cannot spread viruses, and COVID-19 spread just as well in places with no 5G at all. Radiation from 5G sits far below international exposure limits.
The panic had real consequences: in the UK, some fifty mobile phone masts were set on fire during April 2020, several of them without any 5G equipment, and engineers were harassed.
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