"Just the facts [about 5G], ma'am..."
We are bombarded on a daily basis with 5G propaganda, both in terms of breathless, gushing articles extolling the virtues of the nascent technology (and of the necessity of 'winning the race' to saturate our respective countries with 5G coverage), and also of articles condemning - often in the most strident and offensive terms - those 'conspiracy theorists' and 'Luddites' who urge precaution in our adoption of the next generation of possibly carcinogenic technologies. Indeed, President Macron of France recently compared such people to the Amish.
I was confronted by an article in the Guardian this morning, reporting on the recent results of a study from the director of the 'Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab', Dr Sander van der Linden, who is a 'Social Psychologist', and also 'co-convener of the Cambridge Special Interest Group on Disinformation and Media Literacy':
Poor numerical literacy linked to greater susceptibility to Covid-19 fake news - Guardian, 14th October 2020
Alongside the obligatory '5G conspiracy graffiti' image that accompanies the article, it discusses how people with 'poor numerical literacy' are allegedly more likely to believe 'misinformation' and 'fake news'. The paper quotes from the Cambridge University study:
'Participants were presented with nine statements about Covid-19, some false (for example, 5G networks may be making us more susceptible to the coronavirus) and some true (for instance, people with diabetes are at higher risk of complications from coronavirus)'.
The study in turn refers to the World Health Organisation's 'Mythbusters' page on Covid-19. If you look at the entry for 5G (please see the link at the bottom of this post), you will see that what the WHO actually says is this:
FACT: 5G mobile networks DO NOT spread COVID-19
Viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks. COVID-19 is spreading in many countries that do not have 5G mobile networks.
The claim that viruses travel on radio waves, and spread Covid-19 is a completely different thing to the claim that the prevalence of 5G radiation, and the radiation from other wireless technologies, may increase our susceptibility to viruses. Conflating one hypothesis with the other proves absolutely nothing, and is of no scientific value.
Anybody who has studies the biological effects of the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from wireless technologies, including 5G, will know that there is substantial and credible independent scientific evidence showing that sustained exposure to these EMFs can have profound health effects throughout the body. For example, the $30m National Toxicology Program cell phone study results showed 'clear evidence' of a link between the radiation from 2G and 3G phones and cancer, as well as DNA damage.
Also, the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified the radiofrequency radiation that is emitted by wireless technologies (WiFi, smart meters, mobile phones, mobile phone masts, Bluetooth devices, etc. etc.) as a Group 2B Possible Carcinogen.
The statement '5G networks may be making us more susceptible to the coronavirus' is determined to be false by the authors of this paper, based on a misreading of what the World Health Organisation actually said. It is unclear to what extent the authors have conducted their own research in order to have arrived at their conclusion.
My challenge to them is this: Please provide us with the evidence that clearly rules out the possibility that the radiation from 5G, and other wireless technologies, may be making us more susceptible to viruses in general, and to this virus in particular. This evidence can then be scrutinised, to establish its quality.
If the scientific evidence doesn't exist to back up the author's claim, then I'd suggest that they are themselves guilty of disseminating 'misinformation' and 'fake news', at least until scientific certainty, one way or the other, is established.
Please: just the facts, chaps...
References
Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world (Royal Society Open Science)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.201199
'Mythbusters': 5G - World Health Organisation
National Toxicology Program cell phone studies
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/cell_phone_radiofrequency_radiation_studies_508.pdf
IARC Monograph 102 Press Release
https://www.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr208_E.pdf
Dr Sander van der Linden - Cambridge University
https://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/sander-van-der-linden
Image: Dan Aykroyd in the film Dragnet
from: https://www.eightieskids.com/just-the-facts-of-them-about-dan-aykroyd-and-tom-hanks-dragnet/
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