Fake News, 5G, and the Virus

Glastonbury and the Disinformation War

Glastonbury Tor seen from Worthy Farm

Over the weekend I learned some depressing news from a David Aaronovitch book review in the Times. Apparently, State of Fear by Laura Dodsworth, which he describes as “an outrageously dumb book selling conspiracy hooey” about the pandemic, has become an unexpected bestseller.

Which begs the question - are we losing the battle against the tidal wave of disinformation I describe in the concluding chapter of Always On? While the technology of the social smartphone era proved extremely valuable when the pandemic struck, it was also instrumental in spreading ‘conspiracy hooey’ via Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and a whole host of neighbourhood forums. There, people who have a “friend in the health service” who says the hospitals are actually empty, or have heard from “a scientist who says vaccine deaths are being covered up” , kindly share these stories that the hated MSM won’t cover.

What is particularly worrying is how conspiracy theories that at first seem so batty that we can safely laugh at their proponents soon achieve mainstream traction in slightly less outlandish versions.

Take the idea that 5G phone networks were somehow linked to the spread of the coronavirus. As early as January 20th 2020 a French conspiracy site Les Moutons Enragés was asking ‘Could we already be facing the first case of “a viral or bacterial mutation” due to the roll-out of 5G?’ 

Like a virus released into the wild, the theory quickly spread through social media, where it mutated into all sorts of exotic forms. A huge array of 5G masts had been switched on in Wuhan just before the first cases of coronavirus were reported, 5G was a “bioweapon” being installed by councils in lampposts, even the weekly Clap For Carers event was apparently just a conspiracy to cover up the sound of 5G cables being laid.

Such talk was not just confined to obscure corners of Facebook. ‘What I don’t accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true when they don’t know it’s not true. It’s very easy to say it is not true because it suits the state narrative,’ said Eamonn Holmes, the host of ITV’s very mainstream Good Morning, lashing out at those who dismissed the 5G theory. He apologised the following day.

But the 5G conspiracy fell on fertile ground because of long-term suspicions about mobile phone technology, particularly across the English West Country. Much of this chapter is based in the Glastonbury town of Somerset where, well before the pandemic arrived, the town council was gearing up to stop the rollout of the new mobile networks.

In this extract I describe how the council ended up commissioning a very one-sided report: 

In 2019 the Glastonbury Festival, which is actually based 7 miles away in the village of Pilton, had taken place just a few weeks after EE launched the UK’s first 5G network. The mobile company had decided that here was a chance to show off the technology – after all, one of the main advantages of 5G was that it would bring far greater capacity to a network and, with 200,000 people all using their mobile phones at the same time, the festival had long been one massive ‘notspot’.

But naturally there was fierce opposition. A petition accused the organizers and EE of using festivalgoers as guinea pigs, calling 5G ‘a ‘weapons- grade’ phone technology that has sparked health concerns and been linked with a spate of suicides at Bristol University.’ The trial went ahead – although as hardly anyone at the festival besides a few journalists had a 5G handset it was hard to know what it proved. Nevertheless, the Electrosensitivity UK group insisted that site workers had reported ‘bad headaches, nosebleeds and digestive issues’. (Frequent festivalgoers might think this sounds like the usual Glastonbury hangover.)

By now Glastonbury Town Council, which was run by the Green Party, had passed a motion opposing the roll-out of 5G in the area, ‘based on the precautionary principle, until further information is revealed from a newly convened 5G advisory committee.’ And while there were plenty of people in the town instinctively suspicious of the technology, the council had also been vigorously lobbied by visiting campaigners, notably one Christopher Baker. Described by the Electrosensitivity UK newsletter as an EMF consultant, he told councillors that Glastonbury could take a lead in blocking 5G that others would follow. Mr Baker was then appointed as a member of that 5G advisory committee, which was to take a deep dive into the technology and advise the council on whether it was safe. 

This committee had a somewhat grand and ambitious mission for a town council – which had, after all, little or no say in planning decisions around the siting of mobile phone masts. Yet it was asked by councillors to advise them ‘on the safety or otherwise of 5G cellular network technology’, and on whether or not they should continue to oppose the roll-out of 5G. Its members were instructed to ‘approach experts to give presentations and specialist advice to the committee on the safety or otherwise of 5G cellular network technology’ and ‘collect evidence demonstrating the safety or otherwise of 5G cellular network technology from robust sources’.

In a way you could see this as admirable. Glastonbury was showing the UK and the rest of the world that you needed to look at all of the scientific evidence before coming to a conclusion about something as important as a revolutionary new technology. After being convened in July and holding 13 meetings through the autumn and winter, the committee delivered its report in April 2020 at the height of the UK’s coronavirus lockdown – and at a time when theories about a link between the virus and 5G were spreading rapidly. In his foreword, the committee’s chairman, Green Party councillor Jon Cousins, made it clear that this report was likely to have an impact far beyond the local area. ‘Glastonbury’, he wrote, ‘has been described as “a town that punches above its weight”, influencing other councils and levels of government both locally and nationally.’

The report came down firmly on the side of those who thought 5G unsafe. It said the council should call for MPs to hold an inquiry into the technology, and demand that the government undertake an independent scientific study into the non-thermal effects of 5G and electromagnetic hypersensitivity. On top of that, Glastonbury Council needed to lobby ICNIRP –the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection – to change the way it set guidelines for emissions from phone masts. The global body needed to look at ‘the non-thermal effects of radiofrequency EMFs’ – in other words, the unproven claims that everything from Wi-Fi to 2G, 3G and 4G can cause damage to the human body.

Even if the UK parliament and the international standards body were unlikely to leap into action at the behest of one Somerset council, the report seemed like a serious contribution to the debate about 5G. After all, the committee of nine councillors and nine external members had consulted leading scientists and had combed through all of the research – hadn’t they?

A few weeks after the report was published I was contacted by one of those external members, who painted a very different picture of the nature of the report. Far from being a rigorous study of the science, Mark Swann told me, it had been hijacked by conspiracy theorists.

Mr Swann, who had a degree in physics, had responded to an advert in the local paper calling for people with relevant experience to help decide whether 5G was safe. ‘I joined the working group in good faith, expecting to take part in a sensible discussion about 5G,’ he told me. ‘Sadly the whole thing turned out to be a clueless pantomime, driven by conspiracy-theorists and sceptics.’

The book goes on to describe how Mr Swann and the couple of other committee members with a scientific background found themselves outnumbered by determined opponents of 5G, including a local spiritual healer. While the council insisted that the report did not suggest there was a link between 5G and the virus, the words “coronavirus” and “Wuhan” appeared several times in the appendices where committee members laid out their individual views.

One member, Toby Hall, a believer in alternative therapies, even used the opportunity to recommend a product which provided protection against electromagnetic radiation. This sends me off on a quest to find out more about the 5G Bioshield, a USB key costing more than £300 which used “quantum oscillation” to balance and harmonise disturbing frequencies from electronic devices.

In the past year, we have seen thousands of people taking to the streets to protest against lockdowns and promote often nonsensical theories about the nature of Covid-19, the evil schemes of Bill Gates and the dangers of vaccines. But perhaps we worry too much about the impact of disinformation.

After all, just about every opinion poll shows the majority of the public are even more cautious about relaxing coronavirus restrictions than the scientists and politicians. And as for vaccine hesitancy, take-up of the jab by the Great British public has beaten all forecasts. When the government’s vaccination website started accepting bookings from the over-25s, it was almost overwhelmed by a tidal wave of traffic. In fact, a vaccine appointment is now a hotter ticket than the Glastonbury Festival. 

Always On is available as a hardback, ebook or audiobook here.

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