The US government has previously said there is “no evidence to suggest that 5G has anything to do with COVID-19,” or that 5G poses health risks, in general.
Conspiracy theorists across the globe are lighting phone masts on fire after claims that the coronavirus pandemic was caused by 5G radiation—or at the very least, is helped spread by the tech.
While Quebec alone has seen four phone masts set ablaze in just four days, the Liberal chair of a parliamentary health committee, Ron McKinnon, has sponsored an "official petition to the House of Commons" that promotes a form of the reckless conspiracy theory—specifically, that 5G poses a risk to children, the Globe and Mail reports.
McKinnon, who serves as MP for for Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, is the Liberal chair of the health committee, is responsible for aiding in Canada's response to the coronavirus pandemic. By backing the conspiracy theory, McKinnon is going against the advice of the ever-so-loved World Health Organization, whom the Liberals have defended on numerous occasions.
The World Health Organization has previously debunked theories surrounding 5G, and the US government has previously said there is “no evidence to suggest that 5G has anything to do with COVID-19," or that 5G poses health risks, in general.
The petition itself, petition E-2424, refers to a study by L.Lloyd Morgan, Santosh Kesari and Devra Lee Davis titled “Why children absorb more microwave radiation than adults," claiming that children are more vulnerable to the effects of exposure to radiofrequency/microwave radiation due to their thin skulls and developing brains.
That study has been discredited on numerous occasions, including a breakdown by Forbes' Steven Salzberg, a professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, which found that two of the three authors work for a private organization whose "sole purpose" is to "promote claims that cellphones and other wi-fi devices cause cancer."
Salzberg also calls the paper the "worst scientific paper" he has "read in years."
"The article is a series of claims, most of them unrelated to one another, about the effects of MWR and other topics. The authors have cherry-picked several dozen studies that they believe support their hypothesis, which they cite without any explanatory details, while ignoring hundreds of studies that contradict their claims."
McKinnon defended his decision to back the controversial petition, citing other constituents who had also backed it.
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