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Tentacles of lightning illuminate a stormy sky. Three people wear medical face masks, worry visible in their eyes. Next to those two images is one more that reads simply “5G” \u2014\u00a0 a reference to the fifth-generation of wireless networking technology.These ominous pictures accompany this headline on a\u00a0story being shared widely on Facebook:<\/p>\n
“Coronavirus Hoax: Fake Virus Pandemic Fabricated to Cover-Up Global Outbreak of 5G Syndrome.”<\/p>\n
The post was flagged as part of Facebook\u2019s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our\u00a0partnership with Facebook<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Please strike this claim from your list of things to worry about: This is just one more coronavirus assertion without evidence. As we\u2019ve\u00a0mentioned before<\/a>, the best available information is that this virus started with an animal.<\/p>\n The article appears on the Millennium Report, an anti-5G website that includes a section on the rollout of 5G, which “greatly endangers” the health of\u00a0 “every person in the USA.”<\/p>\n The article cites no verifiable evidence of this claim. Instead, it alleges that the\u00a0coronavirus<\/a>\u00a0discovered in Wuhan, China, was “staged to cover-up the public health crisis caused by the intensive 5G roll-out in Wuhan in 2019.” It attributes the information to an unnamed “intelligence analyst and former U.S. Army officer.”<\/p>\n 5G<\/a>\u00a0is<\/a>\u00a0the latest upgrade to wireless systems that deliver data to mobile phones and other devices. As in, faster, faster, faster. It involves the federal government selling wireless spectrum used for the technology and more cell towers being located in\u00a0populated<\/a>\u00a0rather than rural areas.<\/p>\n Is there reason to worry about possible health effects? Perhaps.<\/p>\n Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, supports a moratorium on 5G development. He\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in Scientific American that there could be health effects and that research needs to be funded.<\/p>\n But other reports say fears are overblown:<\/p>\n These concerns about 5G aside, there is no evidence that the coronavirus has anything to do with wireless technology.<\/p>\n The current coronavirus \u2014 which causes the respiratory disease known as COVID-19 \u2014 is spreading internationally. As of March 8, 2020, it had been\u00a0detected<\/a>\u00a0in more than 100,000 people in more than 100 countries, including in the United States.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what we know about how it emerged in\u00a0December<\/a>\u00a02019 in Wuhan, China:<\/p>\n COVID-19 “is a zoonotic virus” \u2014 that is, it was spread from animals to humans \u2014 according to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from 25 international experts, including some from China and the U.S., convened by the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n Bats “appear to be the reservoir of COVID-19 virus,” but the intermediate host or hosts \u2014 that is, how it went from bats to humans \u2014 has not been identified.<\/p>\n Such viruses often originate in\u00a0bats<\/a>, although they sometimes can jump to another species before infecting humans. Chinese\u00a0researchers<\/a>\u00a0have found a possible link between COVID-19 and\u00a0pangolins<\/a>, a mammal entirely covered in scales.<\/p>\n Early on, many of the patients in Wuhan had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Later, a growing number of patients reportedly did not have exposure to animal markets, indicating person-to-person spread.<\/p>\n The headline of an article shared on Facebook claimed, without verifiable evidence: “Coronavirus Hoax: Fake Virus Pandemic Fabricated to Cover-Up Global Outbreak of 5G Syndrome.”<\/p>\n World experts say the virus originated in an animal \u2014 perhaps in a bat that transmitted the virus to another animal, and then to humans.<\/p>\n We rate the claim False.<\/p>\nThe article<\/h3>\n
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Animal origins<\/h3>\n
Our ruling<\/h3>\n