The #5Gcoronavirus conspiracy claims are caused by bad grammar – a thread.
Like many people I have relatives who are into conspiracy theories, and occasionally send them to me on WhatsApp. In this case, one in particular believes #5G is causing health problems.
My mum gets caught in the middle between me – a disinformation researcher – and the relatives, so occasionally I look into the claims and tell her what I find. Hence this thread.
On the face of things a link between a wireless radio frequency and a virus seems crazy. How could there possibly be a link? Yet people are burning phone towers because of it. theverge.com/2020/4/6/21209…
So my mum sent me a link to this video which claims a New York doctor "unknowingly describes the effects of 60GHz" on coronavirus patients. Intriguing. 
I looked up the original video. It's from @cameronks, who really is a doctor, and really did make a video claiming we should review vent protocols because they might inadvertently harm COVID-19 patients. nypost.com/2020/04/06/nyc…
Dr Kyle-Sidell argues COVID-19 shouldn't be treated like pneumonia, as it more closely resembles altitude sickness – where patients are slowly starved of oxygen. But the conspiracy video expands on his comments with slides claiming a link between 5G and oxygen absorption.
And the title of the paper really does seem to say 60GHz frequencies have "unique oxygen absorption properties." Hence the link to coronavirus – conspiracists claim that 5G somehow absorbs the oxygen and prevents it from reaching patients' lungs, as described by the doctor.
But look at the paper itself, and it's about the ability of atmospheric oxygen *to absorb* radio waves at this frequency. There's a lot of research here: 60GHz can't be broadcast over long ranges because of the high rate at which signal energy is lost in the air.
There's a ton of information about this – it's why 5G transmitters have to be placed much closer together than regular cell towers, which can be controversial.
Although like all conspiracies it keeps evolving, as far as I can see the whole thing stems from the claim that 5G absorbs oxygen, but that's exactly backwards – it's oxygen that absorbs 5G.
And if only that first paper's title was less ambiguous, we might not be here in the first place... So, that's how the 5G coronavirus conspiracy was caused by bad grammar. Always check out information before you share – and please, stay at home!
