Dr Bamidele Iwalokun, a medical researcher on Tuesday in Lagos described the on-going link between 5G and the COVID-19 pandemic as a fallacy that should be disregarded by the public.
Iwalokun, a Deputy Director in the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the rumour was capable of affecting the ongoing war against the virus.
NAN reports that there have been several claims on the social media linking 5G as the major cause of the Coronavirus pandemic ravishing the globe.
He said: ”5G is the fifth generation wire communications technologies to support cellular data networks, involving mobile phones, laptops and others which was launched in 2019.
“This is an upgrade of 4G presently in use in Nigeria which means high frequency of radio wave in Mega to Giga Hertz and faster speed of data transmission in megabit to gigabit compared to 4G.
“In terms of health risks, 5G belongs to the family of Radio waves with no proven evidence of harmful effects in human or DNA mutation effects in viruses including Coronavirus.
“It is the other electromagnetic spectrum of waves that have been proven to be harmful to human health.
“Therefore, it is an unimaginable fallacy to link the latest 5G technology to SARS COV-2 evolution, transmission and pandemic.
“The 5G COVID-19 rumour is a misconception capable of disabling the current national and regional fights against COVID-19 pandemic.”
Iwalokun who is of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in NIMR, urged Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and other health agencies leading the war against the virus, to refute the claims scientific terms.
“This is a serious misinformation that should not be allowed to spread through any media in Nigeria.”
“Risk communication and community engagement response pillar of NCDC and other first responder agencies in the country should be well coordinated and strategised to debunk this rumour and prevent it to thrive.
“Over 20 years of research have been carried by experts all over the world and the World Health Organisation through the Mobile and Wireless Forum on the effect of radio waves and human health.
“Findings from these studies have revealed no serious adverse effects in humans,” he said.
