Michael Gove calls 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories ‘dangerous nonsense’

'It's the worst kind of fake news.'

Conspiracy theories linking 5G masts with the spread of coronavirus have been branded ‘dangerous nonsense’ and ‘the worst kind of fake news’.

Fire crews in the West Midlands and Merseyside have been called out to extinguish masts in recent days and Mobile UK, the trade body representing network providers, has said people are ‘abusing our key workers and making threats to damage infrastructure under the pretence of claims about 5G’.

Asked about the rumours at the Downing Street coronavirus briefing, Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove dismissed them as ‘dangerous nonsense’.

NHS England’s national medical director Professor Stephen Powis went further, calling them ‘complete and utter rubbish’, adding: ‘It’s the worst kind of fake news.

‘The reality is that the mobile phone networks are absolutely critical to all of us, particularly at a time when we are asking people to stay at home and not see relatives and friends.

‘But in particular, these are also phone networks used by the emergency services and health workers and I am absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency.

‘It is absolute, utter rubbish and I can’t condemn it in terms stronger than that.’

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Videos purportedly showing masts deliberately set on fire were posted on social media after theories about the link between the mobile technology and Covid-19 circulated online.

Cheers actor Woody Harrelson and former Dancing on Ice judge Jason Gardiner are among stars who have shared theories.

Scientists, however, have completely rejected the claims.

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: ‘Conspiracy theorists are a public health danger who once read a Facebook page.

‘Here, we also see similar groups of people keen to show their ignorance on a topic where they have no helpful expertise, nor any inclination to post useful public health messages.

‘The celebrities fanning the flames of these conspiracy theorists should be ashamed.’

Professor Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, added: ‘The internet connections these networks give us are one of the most important tools we are using to co-ordinate our response to the epidemic and efforts to do research to overcome it.

‘Damaging phone masts is like knocking holes in your lifeboats while your ship sinks.’

Prof Brendan Wren, professor of microbial pathogenesis, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said a connection between the phone masts and the virus would be ‘both a physical and biological impossibility’.

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