Verizon CEO says 5G virus conspiracy theories are nonsense

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said that conspiracy theories linking the rollout of 5G to the spread of COVID-19 are false in an interview with CNBC today.

“There’s no correlation at all between 5G and coronavirus,” Vestberg said. “It’s just fake news.” He said Verizon planned to combat the conspiracy theories with “our communication, and the industry’s communication, and with health organizations’ communication.”

Vestberg was referring to communications already issued by health organizations and information combating conspiracies about wireless devices and health that can be found at www.wirelesshealthfacts.com, a Verizon spokesperson tells The Verge. That site states that “radiofrequency energy from wireless devices and networks, including radiofrequencies used by 5G, has not been shown to cause health problems, according to the international scientific community,” and points to resources and quotes from wireless communications bodies and health organizations supporting that assertion.

The site also links to a WHO website that spells out how COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets and that viruses cannot travel via radio waves or mobile networks.

Despite no scientific evidence establishing a link between 5G and coronavirus, conspiracy theories connecting the two have spread across social media, leading to 5G towers in the UK being set on fire and people harassing workers laying fiber optic cables. My colleague Tom Warren has put together an explainer about why these conspiracy theories don’t make sense.

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