TECHNOLOGY/CORONAVIRUS

The Never Ending Theories on Coronavirus

How anti-5G campaigners are on a looting spree

The deadly disease that’s been turning the world upside down since Jan 5, 2020 is still in the news, this time for a different reason. The deep state of intellect awakens during tough times. When the world is suffering mental and physical trauma, conspiracy theorists are profiting from a hoax.

The recent news update talks about 5G cellular networks’ radiations being the major reason for the spread of Covid-19. The fifth generation technology standard for cellular networks has expanded to over 40+ countries.

Theorists use fear as a measure of profit

The Theorists are using subtle methods to make their way in the lives of people. They’re selling anti-5G thumbdrives claiming that these reduce/eliminate Covid-19 caused by the radiation.

“no chance that COVID-19 is caused by 5G radiation,” Brandon Brown, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Riverside

It’s funny how people use social media to provoke harm in situations like these. A Facebook group has about 50K members and is named Stop-5G-UK. The thumbdrive costs close to $350 and is believed to protect the lives of people from coronavirus.

W.H.O has announced that viruses cannot spread through radio waves and a lot of countries without the 5G technology have been affected by the virus.

Social Media Reactions

These theories are giving social media platforms like twitter a hard time. Twitter has begun to fact check its labels related to 5G and coronavirus. It has been extra careful not to entertain misleading information.

However, it doesn’t seem that the algorithms are working in favor. The words ‘oxygen’ and ‘frequency’ have been tagged under the 5G conspiracy theory.

“ building new automated capabilities to apply these labels to Tweets we think could be relevant”

said Twitter support. It’s unsure when these changes would take place since it’s an iterative process.

Influencers, a big part

When the theory went rounds, it was welcomed by a few. What led to a widespread belief? Influencers played a vital role in making the public believe it was true.

On January 19, Zignal Labs identified a tweet-” Wuhan has 5,000+ #5G base stations now and 50,000 by 2021 — is it a disease or 5G?”

The spike in numbers was witnessed when singer Keri Hilson tweeted:

“People have been trying to warn us about 5G for YEARS. Petitions, organizations, studies…what we’re going thru is the effects of radiation.

5G launched in CHINA. Nov 1, 2019. People dropped dead. See attached & go to my IG stories for more. TURN OFF 5G by disabling LTE!!!

Following this, there were 50 attacks on cell towers in the UK.

Rapper Wiz Khalifa tweeted on April 3: “Corona? 5g? Or both?”

Many actors and singers took to their social media accounts to post their knowledge on the issue and the QAnon supporters were already promoting the 5G conspiracy.

Other Theories

The 5G theory is one such but covid-19 has been linked to numerous theories and accusations.

The theory that Bill Gates not only created the virus but used 5G to do it is making vivid rounds on the internet. While many of us believed that China was the mastermind behind the bioweapon to create massive destruction to economies world-wide, the rise of other theories pushed the main concern backward. Scientists have studied the virus in detail and have announced that it only spreads through droplets and has nothing to do with radio waves.

Why do we fall in the Trap?

As silly as it sounds, the world feared an engineer who wore a hazmat suit while climbing the telecom mast. This was a generic belief of people that 5G is hazardous to health.

Radiophobia is a thing since 1903. This followed a series of others like the fear of microwaves, 2G and powerlines. These theorists closely study the world to inculcate new components to the existing theories.

Science has it that the attractive nature of these theories arises from numerous cognitive biases. Confirmation bias is the most prominent that drives people into believing these theories. As the psychology professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, argues that humans tend to form habits based on evidence that support their existing beliefs and ignore the ones that do not.

These are just a few behavioral patterns that showcase the tendency to be inclined towards these theories.

Being Smart about beliefs

Everyday thousands of articles pop up mentioning the causal effects of Covid-19. We believed in everything, at some point. Are we willing to do the same throughout? Any article that has zero proof is just a hoax.

The tech giants are doing enough to worsen the situation of the public by looting. Now, these theories have heightened the process of deceiving. Whether it’s biowarfare or the radio waves, we need to be well informed and stop believing in false allegations just because they’re tweeted by celebrities or they’re trending.

One step at a time makes huge progress and as a civilian, it’s our responsibility to safeguard the economy and our minds too. The more you delve into these conspiracy theories, the more emotionally-drained you become.

This can have a huge impact on our brains. The next time you hear any, pause and reflect. After all, nothing beats staying healthy mentally and physically.