A 5G mast in Merseyside, UK, has been set alight on Friday amid online conspiracy theories that 5G is causing the coronavirus.
A second mast in Birmingham was also set alight, but at the time of writing it hasn’t been confirmed to be a 5G tower.
Both incidents have been linked to a prolific amount of misinformation online baselessly claiming that 5G is causing the coronavirus.
In Melling, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has said it extinguished a 5G mast tower fire that had caused damage to the control panels and mast itself. A telecommunications tower in Sparkhill, Birmingham, was also set ablaze on Thursday.
Sponsored Content. Continued below...
Many of the conspiracies are based on the rather mild coincidence that China and the city of Wuhan – where the coronavirus first spread to humans – were among the first places to adopt the new 5G technology.
Many claim that the coronavirus isn’t actually a virus, but is caused by 5G radiation waves, and that all scientists who has analysed the virus and identified it as a zoonotic virus are lying to the public. Others baselessly claim that 5G dampens a person’s immune system, exacerbating the spread of the virus, though industry bodies and health organisations have repeatedly stated that there is no evidence that 5G is detrimental to a person’s health.
However, such conclusions don’t account for why many coronavirus cases as occurred in cities or rural areas that don’t have 5G, or why countries like Iran, Malaysia and Japan – that have not yet adopted 5G – also have many cases of coronavirus.
Thanks for reading! But before you go… as part of our latest series of articles on how to earn a little extra cash using the Internet (without getting scammed) we have been looking into how you can earn gift vouchers (like Amazon vouchers) using reward-per-action websites such as SwagBucks. If you are interested we even have our own sign-up code to get you started. Want to learn more? We discuss it here. (Or you can just sign-up here and use code Nonsense70SB when registering.)
Become a Facebook Supporter. For 0.99p (~$1.30) a month you can become a Facebook fan, meaning you get an optional Supporter Badge when you comment on our Facebook posts, as well as discounts on our merchandise. You can subscribe here (cancel anytime.)