COVID-19: Relax, Ignorance is more dangerous than 5G

It has been a difficult start to life in 2020 so far, since the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm. The highly contagious disease has spread across the world like wildfire, crippling the world's economy, and changing they way we live.

As at the time of writing, the disease has infected over 1,182,827 according to data from Worldometer. Roughly 63,925 people have died from the virus, while 244,224 have recovered.


To help curb the spread of the disease, world leaders have taken strick measures including restricting movement which left people confined to their homes.

In this difficult moment, people want answers and believe they aren't being told the truth about the deadly disease. This obvious anxiety across the world ultimately gave room for different theories explaining the current situation. One of such theories and arguably the most popular, is the claim linking the roll out of 5G networks and coronavirus.



The popularity of the theory linking Covid-19 with 5G, is said to be absurd by experts, but with high profile Public figures like former minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, and former Senator Dino Melaye, falling for it, its understandable why many Nigerians are obsessed with the new technology.

Being a highly religious country were pastors are held with high esteem, all it takes is for Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo, Enoch Adeboye and others to condemn the latest technology and the whole country will become anti-5G.


The Mast Attack

In the UK, the growing belief that 5G is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to an attack on a 5G facility in Birmingham.

Network provider EE, per report by euronews, said its engineers were currently assessing the cause of a blaze at a mast in Birmingham that had caused "significant damage".

The company said: "If it transpires that it was arson, which looks likely at this time, then we will work to help West Midlands Police identify a culprit.




"To deliberately take away mobile connectivity at a time when people need more than ever to stay connected to each other is a reckless, harmful and dangerous thing to do.

"We will try to restore full coverage as quickly as possible, but the damage caused by the fire is significant."

But what exactly is 5G?

5G is a wireless mobile network that was deployed in 2019 to help improve telecommunications and mobile connectivity. The latest technology works at a higher wave frequency than its predecessors to allow for this upgrade in usage. Its high frequency however, are still far lower than the limits stipulated in international guidelines. This means the technology poses no health risks to humans.

What are the claims relating to 5G being harmful to health?

Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, there were already discussions about the effects 5G could have on a person's health, due to these higher frequencies and the type of radiation it emits.



But since the outbreak, the 5G conversation seems to have found itself linked with covid-19 with people claiming it could exacerbate the spread through its frequencies, or by suppressing the immune system.

Others have claimed the virus is, in fact, being used to cover up dangerous effects of the mobile network.

So - is 5G linked to coronavirus?

While there have been concerns about the harzads of 5G to the human body, it however, has nothing to do with claims linking it to COVID-19 whatsoever.


The claims linking the two has in fact, been describe as 'baseless' and unfounded.

Yusuf Sambo, a researcher at the University of Glasgow who is testing 5G in Scotland, told AFP that while he could acknowledge other health fears, they had nothing to do with viruses.

He said: "Yes, there are fears about the health implications of 5G but they have to do with cancer and not viral infections."

Is 5G linked to any health hazards at all?

Electromagnetic waves emit electromagnetic radiation, which at high frequencies are believed to pose a risk of causing cancer.



However, low frequencies - such as 5G frequencies - produce a non-ionising form of radiation that is not thought to be able to penetrate and damage cells.

The World Health Organisation, which has a detailed guide on the mobile network, said "no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies", even after "much research" was carried out.

The Experts 

According to Dr Jack Rowley, the senior director for research and sustainability at GSMA, the industry body for mobile network operators, higher frequencies interact with organic tissue differently, dissipating more energy at the surface and penetrating less, which means the new standards take measurements across a smaller cross section, and specifically pay attention to the power absorbed by, rather than simply exposed to, a body.


“The most important thing is that the fundamental health risk assessment is unchanged,” Rowley said reports The Guardian. “The limits that we had in 1998 are still protective now.”

In practice, both the old and new limits are unlikely to be breached in the conventional operation of a mobile phone network.



The Guardian reports that evidence in support of the safety of 5G is quite 'overwhelming'. However, in today's current health crisis, even the most poorly thought out theories, would fly.