As world governments continue taking steps to limit the spread of COVID-19, theories on the virus’ origins and activity have cropped up in online communities. These conspiracies are unfounded and serve to undermine the guidelines put in place at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels to protect us from COVID-19.
Here, we will address and deconstruct three of the most prominent COVID-19 conspiracies to help rectify their damaging effects on public health and safety.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus was designed as a bioweapon in a Wuhan lab, but was contracted by a researcher and accidentally released onto the world.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan, China has been the target of many conspiracy theories due to their work with coronaviruses and proximity to the reported “ground zero” for COVID-19: the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Theorists believe COVID-19 was developed as a bioweapon that was accidentally released when it infected a researcher or intern.
There has been no evidence to date that COVID-19 is a lab-modified/-generated coronavirus. Through sequencing of the COVID-19 genome, researchers worldwide have been able to confirm that there is no suggestion of “foul play” at the genetic level. Conspiracists often cite past WIV work as indicative of bioweapon development: a genetically modified bat coronavirus, known as RaTG13, was shown to be capable of infecting human cell line cultures. What these individuals fail to mention is that the WIV has extensively researched the pathology of bat coronaviruses since the 2004 SARS epidemic, and that this study was conducted after anti-bat coronavirus serum antibodies were identified in villagers in Yunnan province. The COVID-19 and RaTG13 genomes share 96% sequence similarity, which is the same similarity that exists between human and chimpanzee genomes.
Evidence from genome sequencing and biotechnological review only suggests that COVID19 and RaTG13 have a common “ancestor” virus – which, in bats, could be one of over 3,200 unique coronaviruses. There are also many instances of zoonoses being transmitted to humans via multiple animal hosts, such as the bird- and swine-transmitted influenza A H1N1 strain responsible for the “swine flu” epidemic. Thus, current knowledge about the origin and transmission of COVID-19 refutes any theories that claim the virus is a man-made bioweapon.
The government is spreading/accelerating the spread of COVID-19 using 5G comThe government is spreading/accelerating the spread of COVID-19 using 5G communication networks and towers. If 5G towers are destroyed, the spread of COVID-19 will be significantly reduced and/or eliminated entirely. munication networks and towers. If 5G towers are destroyed, the spread of COVID-19 will be significantly reduced and/or eliminated entirely.
This theory has perhaps been the most visibly destructive as in Canada, the US, England, and many European countries, 5G communication towers have been lit on fire and destroyed over claims that they are spreading or promoting the spread of COVID-19.
5G communication towers do not spread, or accelerate the spread, of COVID-19. The various claims made by conspiracists about the behaviour of 5G technology – from preventing the body from absorbing oxygen, to “activates” COVID-19 lying dormant in the body, to impairing the immune response – are complete fabrications. Increasing use of smartphones and other “smart” technology has consistently increased the burden placed on wireless networks. The fifth generation of communications technology, or 5G, is the next iteration of radiofrequency (RF) technology that is meant to improve communications worldwide and across devices.
To date, there is no evidence that chronic 5G RF energy exposure has any appreciable effects on human health. Radiofrequency (RF) energy describes the non-ionizing electromagnetic energy that our wireless devices use through 5G communications. Our exposure to RF energy is maintained below an international limit for mobile devices. Canadian guidelines state that radiocommunication devices must not exceed the specific absorbance rate (SAR) limits for different parts of the body when in use: 1.6 Watts per kilogram in 1 gram of tissue for the head and torso, and 4 Watts per kilogram in 10 grams of tissue in the limbs. There have been some RF exposure studies on cell lines and in rodent models, but their results are inconclusive. Such studies have also been controversial due to their lack of applicability to humans: rats are not human, and the exposures they face are often much larger than anticipated human exposures. Thus, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that current 5G RF exposure levels pose any significant threat to human health.
The COVID-19 pandemic was manufactured by the global elite to facilitate mass microchipping via mandatory vaccination.
This theory is based on speculation that the Pirbright Institute, which has patented coronavirus strains, was paid by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to manufacture the COVID-19 virus, thus facilitating microchip-containing vaccinations to be made mandatory. To address this theory, we must break it into parts:
The Pirbright Institute is only minimally funded by the BMGF. The Pirbright Institute is a United Kingdom-based research facility concerned with virology and epidemiology, with a particular focus on zoonotic viruses and diseases in livestock. The institute is primarily funded by stakeholders with a vested interest in improving agricultural animal safety, such as the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation) and the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). This funding is then bolstered on a project-by-project basis by additional grants from the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission, the BMGF, and other international agencies.
The funding provided for BMGF is not allocated to the studies involving the coronavirus patented by the Pirbright Institute. The BMGF donated $5.5 million USD to the Pirbright Institute for the establishment of an international Livestock Antibody Hub, which is meant to research and develop livestock disease and immunology as a means of improving existing vaccination and agriculture processes. This is unrelated to concurrent Pirbright Institute research into Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) and porcine deltacoronavirus, which are diseases caused by coronaviruses in birds and swine, respectively. The patents are not for the viruses themselves, but for the weakened forms that may be used in vaccines as prophylaxis against respiratory diseases, including IBV, in livestock.
RFID microchips could not be implanted via vaccination. There are individuals who have chosen to have radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted sub-dermally for medical or personal reasons, however it would be impossible for a vaccination to carry and implant an RFID chip. Vaccines are administered intramuscularly, meaning that the vaccine is injected directly into muscle – usually, this is the deltoid muscle on your shoulder. This allows the vaccine to rapidly enter the bloodstream by diffusion and by the natural movement of the muscle. This opposes the sub-dermal implantation of RFID chips, which would be placed in the subcutaneous fat to minimize contact with blood and movement-related irritation. It is likely that any foreign body injected with a vaccine would lead to complications that would make its inclusion obvious – instead of avoiding vaccines to protect your personal data, consider deleting your social media accounts instead.