Coronavirus is a family of viruses including the SARS, MERS, SADS, FIPV, MHV, IBV, the novel SARS-Cov-2, etc. Some of these viruses infect humans while some infect other animals.
The novel SARS-Cov-2 is zoonotic, meaning it jumped from animals to humans. In this case, bats and pangolins are the most likely candidates. Genomic sequencing analysis of the SARS-Cov-2 carried out and published in the journal Nature Medicine shows that the virus is a product of natural evolution and is phylogenetically similar to SARS-like bat viruses found in China.
There are conspiracy theories (CTs) flying around that attempt to link the COVID-19 to 5G radiation.
Some of them are as follows:
CT: Wuhan is the first city in China to begin the use of 5G, and this pandemic broke out just at the exact time. That should tell us something.
FACT: This line of reasoning is fallacious as it posits that correlation implies causation. Because many girls waved at you on the day you wore a blue singlet underneath your shirt doesn't mean the singlet had anything to do with the sudden charisma. Wuhan was one of the 16 cities in China to use 5G at about the same time, but none of the other cities have reported high instances of the virus. Furthermore, 5G networks were in use in the United States as early as July 2019. South Korea and Germany both had 5G towers installed as early as April 2019. If 5G towers really caused COVID-19, why weren't cases reported much earlier in countries like the United States, South Korea, or Germany? The answer is simple; 5G has nothing to do with COVID-19.
CT: 5G damages the immune system, leaving individuals immunocompromised and susceptible to the disease.
FACT: While there is no evidence that 5G damages the immune system, this line of thought is also fallacious. It is similar to being in a gunfight with people; after shooting blindly and sporadically behind a heap of stones, you hear a body drop to the ground. You walk up to the body and draw a red circle on the person's head saying you hit the eye, sorry Bull's eye intentionally like a marksman. The immunocompromised (people that have a faulty immune system) consist of the majority of people aged about 65 and above, the people with heart disease, lung disease, lupus, diabetes, etc. These are the people that are mostly affected by the virus, even to the point of death. However, a great percentage of people recover successfully from the disease. So, it is either 5G radiation is selectively blasting people—which makes 5G radiation the same thing as old age and health conditions—or you are drawing the Bull's eye around a random shot you fired into a tree and calling yourself a marksman which is as ridiculous as it is stupid.
A little lecture on 5G...
5G is the fifth generation of mobile networks, an evolution from 4G. 5G is designed to meet the large growth of data and connectivity in the modern world. The most important feature of 5G is its reduced latency. Latency is the time taken for devices to respond to each other over a wireless connection. 3G had a latency of 100 milliseconds, 4G has a latency of 30 milliseconds, and 5G will have a latency as low as 1 millisecond. Which means your pages will load in less than the blink of an eye. 5G will have numerous other applications, but I will not discuss them here to avoid overkill.
5G has an electromagnetic field(EMF), let's get down to what this is. EMFs are energy fields from radiation present everywhere in our environment. They can be generated by either natural or man-made resources.
Natural sources:
- Earth's magnificent field.
*Lightning.
*Visible light.
Man-made sources:
*Electrical appliances.
*Radio communication devices(which includes your phone).
The radiation from these sources can be classified as ionising and non-ionising radiation;
Ionising radiation is the type of radiation from EMFs that carry large quantities of energy such that they can ionise (knock electrons off) particles of matter and break down the chemical bonds between molecules. X-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays are types of ionising radiation.
Non-ionising radiation is the type of radiation from EMFs which cannot break down molecules. Many artificial sources of EMFs are non-ionising, this includes the radio signals used by our mobile devices.
Radio waves used by phones are part of the non-ionising spectrum.
EMFs exist as a spectrum of different wavelengths and frequencies measured in Hertz(Hz). Radio waves generally have a wavelength of 300GHz to as low as 3KHz.
5G has a frequency of about 30 - 300Ghz. Because of their high frequency, they are millimetre waves and this means that 5G radiation cannot travel far, cannot pass through buildings, and cannot pass through the body.
Because of this, numerous small cell base stations will be built at strategic locations to ensure that the signals get transmitted around obstacles to ensure constant connectivity.
As you can see in the picture below, 5G is in the non-ionising spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum. According to WHO, all researches conducted so far have indicated that exposures below the limits recommended in the ICNIRP (1998) EMF guidelines, covering the full frequency range from 0-300 GHz, do not produce any known adverse health effect.
People conjure and spread conspiracy theories due to ignorance, fear of the unknown, and other factors beyond my grasp.
Opposition to technological advancements is not a new thing. Beginning with the Luddites, the branding of television as "Devil's Box" by a certain Nigerian pastor when it was invented, the opposition to coffee and refrigeration, etc. The annoying thing is that these conspiracy theories have eaten many individuals down to the bone such that they are destroying phone masts in the UK over the false 5G coronavirus claims.
I see Pastor Chris Oyakhilome bashing the 5G network and linking it to the coronavirus out of sheer ignorance and stupidity. But I can promise you that in years to come, he will use this same 5G to stream his services.
If you look carefully at the image below, the sun is more dangerous than 5G on the spectrum. After all, UV rays from the sun trigger skin cancer. I guess we should all stay indoors to avoid the sun. These CTs are irrational and ignorant, and a little bit of knowledge is enough to douse the fluttering flames of ignorance.
References:
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/coronaviridae
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm
- https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291347/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090123220300540
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/5g-tower-torn-down-china-covid/
- https://thenextweb.com/corona/2020/02/26/social-media-conspiracies-blame-coronavirus-on-5g-internet/
- http://www.emfexplained.info/?ID=25916
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/non-ionizing-radiation
- https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/the-electromagnetic-spectrum/
Image source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/52168096