By Bradley Stead
On the morning of April 14th, the BBC reported that a mobile phone mast and been set on fire in Huddersfield. The mast, which is attached to a chimney at Fearnleys Mill, was set ablaze at approximately 01:40 and took 6 fire crews (25 firefighters) to extinguish. The fire posed a risk to the occupants of 37 flats, as well as destroying the communication equipment of emergency services and 3 mobile phone providers.
At the time of writing investigations are still ongoing and the cause of the fire remains unknown.
This news comes after a number of phone masts – at least 20 – have been set on fire across the UK, after a conspiracy theory linking 5G and the spread of COVID-19. Huddersfield is on EE’s list of 71 towns and cities where their 5G network is being rolled out.
Scientists, who know what they are talking about, say that these theories linking coronavirus and 5G are “complete rubbish” as well as biologically impossible.
The two main conspiracy theories are as follows:
Theory 1: ‘Radio waves involved in 5G suppress the immune system, making people more susceptible to the coronavirus’.
Dr. Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, says that this is “complete rubbish”. He refers to lots of studies that have shown that the radio waves in 5G are tiny and “nowhere near strong enough to affect the immune system”.
Theory 2: ‘The COVID-19 virus is transmitted through the use of 5G technology’.
Adam Finn, professor of pediatrics at the University of Bristol, says that it is impossible for electromagnetic waves to transmit a virus that is passed from person to person.
Despite these reassurances from experts and scientific evidence, some people across the UK appear to be taking these conspiracy theories seriously and burning down mobile phone masts, rather than follow government advice to stay at home and only go out for work, food, and/or one piece of daily exercise.
Now questioning things by itself is not a crime, but make sure that you are cynical about, and question, the right things.
For example question why, after months of warning and weeks of lockdown, NHS staff still don’t have enough PPE to deal with coronavirus patients.
Question why the government ignored a 2016 report saying that the NHS would be unable to cope with a global pandemic.
Also question why the media and certain MPs went after footballers’ wages to help aid the fight against COVID-19 when the UK has 2.5 million millionaires who are richer than many footballers and have been largely left unscathed in this campaign of everyone needing to “play their part”, apart from it seems, the very richest in our society.
And besides, COVID-19 is spreading in cities and countries where 5G is yet to be deployed, so that should give you a pretty good idea of what we should be focusing on.