Regardless, what is notable about the public relationship to these infrastructures is that the concerns flare up again and again every time a new infrastructure is developed. Most research shows wireless infrastructure is safe, but some scientists disagree and argue our exposure guidelines are too lax (though that has nothing to do with causing viruses).
I don’t want to flippantly equate concerns about cancer and wireless infrastructure with conspiracies about COVID-19. Regardless, the existence of 5G in places COVID-19 had been diagnosed was enough to fan the flames.Ģ019/20 - Coronavirus outbreak #WWG1WGA #COVIDー19 #5G #5GRollout- Tiffani Cyr April 2, 2020 The map showed a clear overlap, but it really just showed major metropolitan areas. For example, one conspiracy that went semiviral compared a map of COVID-19 hot spots in the U.S. (The latter likely isn’t true.) The conspiracy then spread, with more and more claims using simple correlation to argue that 5G was causing COVID-19. From there, certain groups were off to the races, with one common rumor stating that Wuhan, China, was both the first place to have an identified coronavirus case and the first city to turn on wide-scale 5G networks. Large-scale adoption of 5G networks began in late 2019 the first identified cases of COVID-19 happened in late 2019. But its roots are illustrative of how conspiracies spread more generally: People took two phenomena occurring at roughly similar times and made up causal links between the two. The conspiracy doesn’t hold even a kernel of truth. As many sources, ranging from USA Today to Reuters, have pointed out, there are no actual links between COVID-19 and 5G networks. has threatened to fine broadcasters that blame 5G networks for COVID-19 and some individuals have threatened broadband engineers who work on 5G. Before going through the history of communication infrastructures and health fears, it’s first worthwhile to trace how we moved from a few random social media posts to where we are now, when the U.K.