COVID-19, 5G and the place of common sense

By Jude Ndukwe

SIR: No matter the theory anyone is propagating as the reason for the outbreak of the coronavirus and the vulnerability of the human race to it, such a theory should be factual, evidence-based and scientifically proven. If factual, it will help the world to defeat the virus and defend itself against a similar outbreak in the future; if not, the world would wallow in the darkness of ignorance concerning it while also losing what should be the huge benefits.

Although there has been theories linking 5G to the global coronavirus pandemic, trends in the world have come to prove that such linking is vacuous and untenable as most countries in the world that have rolled out the 5G network have experienced some of the sharpest and most significant decline of the pandemic even while they are increasing the deployment of 5G.

For example, South Korea which is one of the countries with the highest deployment of the 5G network, deploying to 85 cities as at January, did not suffer any coronavirus infection until February 19, when 27 cases tested positive. The country suffered her highest number of infections, 851, in a day on March 3, but has since experienced a steady decline to the extent that she recorded no single infection on May 6, despite not suspending her 5G deployment.

More interesting is that of Sweden which went live with the 5G network since December 2018 but only suffered her first coronavirus infection one year and three months after on March 3, with 15 cases testing positive. The place of common sense here is, if it were true that 5G had any link whatsoever to the COVID-19 pandemic, why then did it wait one year and three months after deployment in Sweden before it started affecting the citizens, and only after the scourge had become a worldwide pandemic?

Although Estonia, like Sweden, went live full blast with 5G in December 2018, the country did not record any case of coronavirus until March 5, when she recorded three cases. That was another one year and three months after the launch of 5G in the country. And since then, the country has experienced a rapid and steady decline in the number of people infected by the virus to the extent that on May 10, the country recorded only six cases. This is in spite of the fact that the country has never suspended 5G services. While 5G services are going up, the pandemic in Estonia is going down.

Although China has some of the highest numbers of infection, she has experienced a speedy and steady decline since February 12, when she had 14,108 cases in a day, and had no single case for a long time despite her 5G services still being very active.

There is no way the United States of America would not have cancelled her 5G services having recorded the highest number of coronavirus related deaths in the world if truly there was any link between 5G and the virus. These are countries that place premium value on the lives of their citizens and would do anything including outright cancellation of any technology that so much ravages their citizens. It is time to stop being scared of technological advancements; it is time to embrace them.

The advantages of having the 5G network cannot be over-emphasised. It will change how we do things radically, making life easier and better. With unprecedented speed of up to 10Gbit/s over time, a response time that will fall from the current 25 to 35 milliseconds to just a few milliseconds, with more devices enabled to transfer far more data which could mean we can transfer as much data in a day as we currently do now in one week, its efficiency and many other merits of the new network, it would be economically suicidal, socially asphyxiating and technologically retrogressive if we allow the rest of the world to leave us so far behind because of some unfounded fears over a technology that we should be racing to embrace rather than demonise.

The coronavirus pandemic like every other pandemic that has hit the world in the past will soon pass. When it does, the 5G network will remain and the world would be better for it. The earlier we embrace it, the better. While I understand the fears of people and sympathise with them on their fears for 5G, evidence from around the world where 5G has since been in operation show that the network is innocent of all the charges leveled against it.

• Jude Ndukwe,

jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk