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.
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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.