Idiotic ‘5G conspiracy theory’ arsonists attack Vodafone phone mast serving Nightingale Hospital
ARSONISTS have attacked a Vodafone network mast belonging serving Birmingham's emergency Nightingale hospital.
It's the latest in a spate of dangerous attacks inspired by a viral – and widely debunked – conspiracy theory linking 5G to coronavirus.
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The NHS is setting up Nightingale hospitals across the country as emergency centres to treat coronavirus patients.
Sadly, many are expected to die in these hospitals without family or friends by their sides.
And now arsonists have damaged a site that could disrupt vital phone signals to the Birmingham site too.
"It’s heart-rending enough that families cannot be there at the bedside of loved ones who are critically ill," said Vodafone chief Nick Jeffery.
"It’s even more upsetting that even the small solace of a phone or video call may now be denied them because of the selfish actions of a few deluded conspiracy theorists.
"Burning down masts means damaging important national infrastructure.
"In practice, this means families not being able to say a final goodbye to their loved ones; hard-working doctors, nurses, and police officers not being able to phone their kids, partners or parents for a comforting chat."
The Vodafone boss said that 20 of the firm's mobile phone masts have now been attacked by arsonists.
It's despite the fact that there is no scientific link between 5G and coronavirus.
Ironically, the Birmingham mast attacked this week wasn't even a 5G tower.
Researchers recently warned that politicians, celebrities and influencers had all been caught up in spreading fake coronavirus claims online.
A number of celebs have been caught up in fake coronavirus news scandals recently.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has also repeatedly dismissed the seriousness of the coronavirus crisis, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.
Zombieland star Woody Harrelson has been warning his Instagram followers about the effects of 5G and shared a video labelled “Meanwhile the Chinese are bringing 5g antennas down”.
His followers were quick to point out that the footage was from an old documentary filmed during protests in Hong Kong and that people were actually pulling down facial recognition cameras.
Others slammed him for his irresponsible message: “Nooooooo Woody, not you! Spreading things like this is dangerous,” said follower lise.km.
Singer MIA posted a series of tweets urged the Government to "turn off" 5G until after the pandemic.
And the star linked coronavirus symptoms to 5G towers.
Celebs have been slammed for sharing the conspiracy theory, including Brits Jason Gardiner and Callum Best, who posted similar claims that 5G can impact the immune system.
Boxer Amir Khan also released a series of bizarre videos where he blames the coronavirus on the building of “5G towers”.
In the clips, Khan admits to “watching a lot of videos and stuff” and says that the new tech could “make things bad”.
Just days ago Khan offered the NHS the use of his four-storey wedding venue to help treat patients during the pandemic.
TV icon Amanda Holden also stirred controversy after tweeting a link to a petition to ban 5G.
But publicists for the Britain's Got Talent star later said that it was an accident – and that she doesn't believe in 5G conspiracies.
And Eamonn Holmes was forced to "clear up" his comments on 5G conspiracy theories after This Morning received 419 Ofcom complains.
The 60-year-old host has now insisted he doesn't believe the theory that 5G has caused coronavirus is valid, and was simply "looking for answers".
What is 5G, and is it safe?
Here's what you need to know...
- Just like 4G (and 3G before that), 5G is simply a new generation of mobile internet
- Phone networks have tweaked the technology to deliver faster speeds – and have dubbed it the "5th generation", or 5
- ll signals fall on the electromagnetic spectrum – from radio waves, to X-rays, and even visible light
- Phone networks use microwaves of a very specific frequency to deliver the internet to your iPhone or Android mobile
- This was true of 3G and 4G, and it's still true with 5G
- In the UK, 4G signals generally sit between 800MHz and 2.6GHz on the electromagnetic spectrum
- 5G is a little higher at 3.4GHz to 3.6GHz, but that's tiny when you consider that microwaves go up to 300GHz
- And visible light comes in at a range of around 430THz to 770THz
- That's more than a thousand times higher than the maximum microwave – and 100,000 higher than 5G
- Dangerous radiation, like UV rays, X-rays and gamma rays are also far higher up the spectrum still
- Online conspiracy theorists are claiming that 5G can cause harm
- Early theories suggested 5G could lead to cancer – and now crackpots have linked it to coronavirus too
- But it's simply impossible for 5G to cause any of these problems
- Radiation damages cells by breaking them apart, but 5G microwaves simply lack the power to do this
- 5G is a low-frequency radiation, far below infrared and visible light
- In fact, it's essential that 5G is low-frequency, because higher frequencies are less useful at delivering mobile signals over large areas
- We know that this level of radiation is safe, because otherwise the visible light from our televisions would have killed us a long time ago
Crackpot arsonists have torched a number of 5G phone masts in the UK in response to online conspiracy theories.
The first fire took place in Birmingham, but several attacks on 5G towers quickly followed up and down the country.
The theory originated last month after a video filmed at a US health conference claimed Africa was not as affected by the disease because it is "not a 5G region".
The theory was debunked further when the World Health Organisation confirmed there were thousands of Covid-19 cases in Africa.
"Arsonists, please think about what you are doing and stop. Imagine if it were your mum or dad, your gran or grandad in hospital," said Vodafone's Nick Jeffery.
"Imagine not being able to see or hear them one last time. All because you’ve swallowed a dangerous lie."
"There is absolutely no link between 5G and coronavirus. There is no science based evidence 5G is harmful to human health.
A spokesperson from the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: "We have received several reports of criminal damage to phone masts and abuse of telecoms engineers apparently inspired by crackpot conspiracy theories circulating online.
";Those responsible for criminal acts will face the full force of the law.
"We must also see social media companies acting responsibly and taking much swifter action to stop nonsense spreading on their platforms, which encourages such acts."
5G conspiracy theories – why are they spreading?
Here's what you need to know...
- The electromagnetic spectrum is nothing new.
- But the internet allows conspiracies to spread at speed, according to EE's Howard Jones.
- "The problem is the level of research people are willing to do that supports the hypothesis they already hold," Howard told us.
- "You can find lots of people talking about how 5G is not safe on the internet.
- "But people talking about how 5G is safe just doesn't happen as much. There isn't as much objective and motivation there to say it is safe."
- However, there are lots of reasons 5G seems scary to people.
- Dr David Grimes explained: "The first one is the difficult proving a negative.
- "The other factor is that radiation is invisible. It's a scary word: we conflate difference concepts like radiation and radioactivity.
- "Radiation is just the transmission of energy through a medium – light is radiation."
- "The things being said about 5G were being said about normal mobile phones and masts in the late 90s. The claims aren't updated, they're just reiterated.
- He went on: "Once you're suckered into these beliefs, it's hard to leave them.
- "Even if we want to believe it, we almost have to put our questioning hat on, and say what evidence is there for that?
- "Particularly online, you have to treat things with a massive pinch of salt.
- "It's something as a society we have to learn, or we'll be taken advantage of by cranks or scheming Russians."
Hundreds of people have commented on shocking videos of the blaze posted on the Facebook group.
One person wrote: "Good needs to be done everywhere evil domination is coming".
Another said: "It is time to act now. Any 5g tower in your area burn it down! Collect people and stand and fight this. Act now before it’s too late!"
Others have posted pictures of masts near their homes, with users urging them to "destroy" it.
While one person in a separate group is keeping a "league"; table for cities setting the masts on fire.
The group has now been forced to warn users not to attack engineers.
A post at the top of the site reads: "We have been notified by certain members of the public that some individuals in this group have decided to target telecoms workers, as they believe and claim them to be 'criminals and genocidists'.
"You know who you are. If you continue to conduct yourselves like this you will be banned from this group."
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The UK Government is now working with tech giants to quell the flow of conspiracy theories.
Civil servants worked with WhatsApp to produce a verified coronavirus information chatbot that anyone can text for free.
And the chat app has also limited chain-mail messages passed on five times from being widely distributed, allowing users to send the text to just one other person.
Meanwhile, Youtube has banned all 5G conspiracy theory videos after David Icke linked the next-gen internet to coronavirus in an interview.
MOST READ IN TECH
In other news, find out why 5G really is safe.
These 5G maps reveal if the super-fast internet is in your area.
And we share the truth about 5G frequency, radiation and microwaves.
What do you make of these crooks? Let us know in the comments.
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