5G and Covid-19

There are a lot of theories on social media that link the Covid-19 pandemic to 5G.

Most of the theories sound fictitious, embarrassing and distasteful; if I may be allowed to borrow the language of one learned Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda, SC, Ja.

However, there is one theory that sounds as true so as to deceive even the enlightened ones.

The philosophy states that the high temperatures that are depicted by Covid-19 patients are not caused by corona virus but by the exposure high frequency 5G signals.

The proponents of this viewpoint proceed to conclude that this is why the disease has hit the western world harder than third world countries.

The theory goes further to state that the disease originated from China because that country was the first to implement 5G.

Put under tech scrutiny, such assertions are fraught with a lot of half-truths and serious technical errors and it would be no injustice to dismiss them out rightly without going any further.

Malawi and Nigeria have not implemented 5G yet there are Covid-19 cases in those countries. Lesotho has 5G presence but does not have Corona disease cases yet.

After all, the first country to rollout 5G was South Korea and not China.

That notwithstanding, there are morsels of truth in the claim. It is true that 5G signals can cause bodies of human beings to warm up a bit after long duration of exposure. The good news is that the effect is not much.

Although these are high frequency signals, they carry very little power. In English, they are less power-hungry.

This makes these signals not harmful to human beings and cannot raise the body temperature significantly high.

Apart from 5G, signals that shop tills use are also high frequency and if this theory was true, then shop assistants at the point of sale of shops would have been depicting high temperature symptoms.

It must be understood that before any technology is implemented, it goes through a rigorous series of testing. Assessments are conducted on its impact on the environment and human beings.

When the mobile phone was becoming ubiquitous, people alleged that the mobile telephony signals would cause cancer to human beings after prolonged time of usage. That has not happened yet and the mobile phone is as useful as oxygen to many these days.

I am not a medical or environmental expert nor do I wish to be one; but some things are obvious.

If you have been at OR Thambo and Chileka airports, you should have noticed the difference; at OR Thambo planes queue. At Chileka Airport, actually the airfield can safely be leased for football matches during most part of the day without problems.

Does that not explain why South Africa has imported more coronas than Malawi?

Covid-19 is a pandemic, and like all pandemics; it is a health and environment issue.