SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Coronavirus: Scientists brand 5G claims 'complete rubbish':
Conspiracy theories claiming 5G technology helps transmit coronavirus have been condemned by the scientific community.
Videos have been shared on social media showing mobile phone masts on fire in Birmingham and Merseyside - along with the claims.
The UK's mobile networks have reported 20 cases of masts being targeted in suspected arson attacks over the Easter weekend, including damage to a mast providing mobile connectivity to Birmingham's Nightingale Hospital.
The posts have been shared on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram - including by verified accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.
TV regulator Ofcom is assessing comments made by presenter Eamonn Holmes in which he cast doubts on media outlets for their attempts to debunk the claims.
But scientists say the idea of a connection between Covid-19 and 5G is "complete rubbish" and biologically impossible.
The conspiracy theories have been branded "the worst kind of fake news" by NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis.
[...] Many of those sharing the post are pushing a conspiracy theory falsely claiming that 5G - which is used in mobile phone networks and relies on signals carried by radio waves - is somehow responsible for coronavirus.
Tough sledding for the engineers, but concerns about 5G have been raised prior to the coronavirus.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 24 2020, @04:18PM (5 children)
In the 1970's the wisdom was that Television made people dumber.
While I agree that stupid people can stand out on a powerful platform (including television, radio, and social media), the fact remains that there is a large number of impressionable people listening to the idiocy.
Therefore, I think social media, tv etc can make people dumber.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday April 24 2020, @08:06PM (3 children)
Einstein was sure that human stupidity is infinite.
Fear makes idiots of otherwise average people. That lizard brain takes over, and then we get panicky behaviors that can be at best useless, and at worst homicidal and suicidal. There's the deer-in-the-headlights freeze, the sticking-your-head-in-the-sand that is attributed to ostriches, the wild and mad run towards the nearest apparent safety even when it's obvious it provides no safety at all or it's hopelessly far away, and, of course, the teleologically wishful thinking that someone is responsible, and that the trouble can be stopped by killing that evil-doer. Burn the witch, first, before she gets us all.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 24 2020, @08:47PM (2 children)
Not entirely true. I can make a comforting panic fort from all of the jumbo packs of toilet paper I hoarded.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 24 2020, @09:20PM
Do you mean picnic fort?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Friday April 24 2020, @11:23PM
Unless it rains.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday April 25 2020, @12:14AM
>In the 1970's the wisdom was that Television made people dumber.
If you feel any smarter than the pre-TV generations you are indeed dumb, so, it's logically inescapable that the above wisdom was true.
Account abandoned.