How a 5G coronavirus conspiracy spread across Europe

Enlarge / Fire-damaged cables protrude from the base of a telecom tower, reported in local media as being a 5G network mast on the EE network, operated by BT Group Plc, in Birmingham, U.K., on Monday, April 6, 2020. (credit: Getty Images)

At about 9.30pm on Easter Monday, in the small Dutch town of Almere near Amsterdam, the fire brigade was called to put out a blaze at a large telecoms mast-the second fire of its kind that night in the area.

Though neither of the Almere towers were equipped with any of the latest 5G telecoms equipment-in fact one was designed only for use by the emergency services-authorities soon concluded that the fires were perpetrated by vandals acting in the name of an unusual theory: that 5G networks have contributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dutch mast fires are just the latest escalation in a series of similar attacks that have swept across the UK and Europe in recent weeks. Having first gained momentum online in early January, the 5G conspiracy theory-which alleges, among other things, that COVID-19 has either been caused by the frequencies used for the new wireless technology, or that those signals impair the human immune system-has spilled rapidly into the offline world.

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