Covid-19 is short for "coronavirus disease 2019" and is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV2, short for "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2". So we're all set that it's a virus, right? Oh no. British media is proving fertile ground for the idea that Covid-19 is caused or carried by 5G, which is to say, radio waves in the frequency range used by WiFi and cellphones. Here's Eamonn Holmes, a top morning TV presenter, promoting the conspiracy on the show he co-presents.
TV presenter Eamonn Holmes is at the centre of a controversy after casting doubt on media outlets that debunk the myth that 5G causes coronavirus.
"What I don't accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true when they don't know it's not true," the ITV This Morning host said.
"It's very easy to say it is not true because it suits the state narrative."
... Holmes made the remarks on Monday in a segment with the programme's consumer editor Alice Beer, who said the 5G theory, which has led a number of phone masts to be set alight or vandalised, was "not true and it's incredibly stupid".
It's an idea floating somewhere between conspiracy theory, sinophobia (Chinese telecom giant Huawei was recently awarded key 5G infrastructure contracts in the UK) and abject ignorance of everything science has thrown light on in recent centuries concerning illness, electromagnetism and the observable nature of reality.
Holmes doesn't believe the conspiracy theories himself, you see -- he's just asking questions, in the form of declarative statements.
