There’s still no evidence 5G is spreading coronavirus, and other COVID-19 misinformation
As the world grapples with an unprecedented health crisis, it is now more important than ever to ensure that the information we share is accurate and fact-based. Fake news and misinformation seem to be spreading as fast and as far as the virus itself, infecting our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment.
For this reason, RMIT ABC Fact Check has launched CoronaCheck, an email newsletter in which we will bring you the latest in fact-checking from around the world in relation to the coronavirus.
You can read the latest edition below, and subscribe to have the next newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
CoronaCheck issue 10
One piece of coronavirus misinformation seems to be spreading faster, further, and via more celebrities than any other: the idea that the rollout of 5G is contributing to the spread of the pandemic.
We’ve taken another look at the issue to drive home the point that there’s no scientific evidence that 5G is harmful to health.
We’ve also checked up on a fake news story we’ve seen circulating that claims a Harvard University professor was arrested for manufacturing and selling the coronavirus to China.
5G conspiracies continue to spread
Conspiracy theories that the rollout of 5G technology is responsible for the novel coronavirus outbreak have spread at an alarming rate.
As noted previously, there’s no scientific basis to these claims but with such misinformation proliferating, we’re revisiting the topic.
Our colleagues at the ABC explained how such theories have been spread, and spoke to Colin Klein, who studies conspiracy theories at Australian National University’s School of Philosophy. He offered the following explanation as to why such theories might be so popular: “Conspiracy theories offer an emotionally satisfying narrative, even if it’s not a true narrative.”
Similarly, the Financial Times tracked 5G/coronavirus conspiracy claims across Europe, where people have been setting alight telecom masts in response.
The World Health Organisation has said there is no link between 5G and the virus.
“Viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks,” the organisation says on its website. “COVID-19 is spreading in many countries that do not have 5G mobile networks.”
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency issued a release earlier this month denouncing the claims.
“There is no established evidence that low level radio wave exposure from 5G and other wireless telecommunications can affect the immune system or cause any other long term or short term health effects,” the agency said.
Was a Harvard professor arrested for manufacturing the virus?
A claim that a Harvard University professor was arrested for manufacturing and selling the coronavirus “bioweapon” to China is false, according to fact checkers at Reuters, The Quint and Boom.
The claim has been shared widely on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, and suggests Dr Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was arrested for his role in spreading the coronavirus. The claim often incorporates a genuine US news report about Dr Lieber’s role in a different controversy.
While Dr Lieber was indeed arrested earlier this year, it was because he lied about his involvement in a Chinese government program aimed at recruiting research specialists, the so-called Thousand Talents Plan.
“Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 2011, Lieber became a ‘Strategic Scientist’ at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017,” the US Department of Justice said in a media release about Dr Lieber’s arrest.
Misleading claims around one of Britain’s youngest victims
A photo shared on Facebook and used in reports of the death of one of the UK’s youngest coronavirus victims, 13-year-old Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, is in fact an image of another 13-year-old, who died by suicide.
According to fact checkers at AFP and Lead Stories, Irish boy Conor Wilmot took his own life in 2017, but his image has been used repeatedly online in relation to the death of Ismail Abdulwahab of London.
The misuse of the image has spurred some to attack the media for spreading “fake news” apparently about the extent of the pandemic, with a Facebook post accusing the media of using the photo in reports of separate alleged coronavirus deaths in different countries.
PolitiFact found the post used screenshots of the photo to accompany snippets of reports of Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab’s death, a legitimate report of Conor Wilmot’s death, and a report of a similar suicide in the US, to suggest a media conspiracy over COVID-19.
How is coronavirus misinformation spreading?
The team at Bellingcat, a website dedicated to online open-source investigation, have explored how coronavirus disinformation (that is, false information spread deliberately with malicious intent) gets past content moderators.
The reporters compared the coronavirus infodemic with similar disinformation techniques used during the Australian bushfires over summer. At that time, climate science sceptics spread stories about arsonists in order to deflect from narratives around the warming climate, and some far right commentators went as far as baselessly blaming Muslims for the devastation.
As Bellingcat points out, many of those same voices are now the ones spreading fake news about COVID-19, including that it is a bioweapon that was released by China.
Fake news fines
While the most RMIT ABC Fact Check can do is to warn against sharing false or misleading information online, Vietnamese authorities have gone to the extreme of introducing a “fake news” fine.
Reuters reports that hundreds of people have already been fined 10-20 million dong — the equivalent of three-to-six-months’ basic salary in Vietnam — for posting false information about the coronavirus.
Vietnamese authorities had already launched a public awareness poster campaign bearing the slogan “fake news, real consequences”.
While the new fine may help stop the spread of coronavirus misinformation, the rules were not specifically designed to cope with the virus, and the scope of them has human rights groups concerned, according to Reuters.
From Washington, D.C.
A day after President Donald Trump announced he was halting US funding of the World Health Organisation, White House counsel Kellyanne Conway appeared on Fox News’s Fox & Friends to discuss the decision.
“This is COVID-19, not COVID-1, folks. And so, you would think that people charged with the World Health Organisation facts and figures would be on top of that,” Ms Conway said during the interview.
But COVID-19 is so named because the disease was first identified in 2019, not because it is the 19th iteration of such a disease.
After drawing a backlash, Ms Conway tweeted that she was aware the figure 19 referred to the year 2019.
“Point: WHO has received billion$ from USA for decades; it should see pandemics coming & be honest,” she tweeted.
PolitiFact judged her original statement on Fox & Friends to be false, saying that while Ms Conway later claimed she knew what COVID-19 stood for, she had made the claim with a straight face.
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Got a fact that needs checking? Tweet us @ABCFactCheck or send us an email at factcheck@rmit.edu.au
