Coronavirus conspiracy: Residents living in COVID-19 hotspots are refusing testing because they believe the virus is linked to 5G and don’t want the government to ‘control them’
- Residents from a Melbourne hotspot are refusing to get tested for coronavirus
- They believe that 5G has caused the virus while others are anti-vaxxers
- One woman said she had seen a number of disturbing comments on Facebook
Residents living in coronavirus hotspots are refusing to get tested because they believe in damaging conspiracy theories, it has been claimed.
Some locals in the Melbourne suburb of Keilor Downs, one of the worst affected areas, believe testing is linked to 5G, while others are anti-vaxxers.
Sheryl, who lives in Keilor Downs, told ABC radio that she had seen a number of disturbing comments on social media.
She said that people were avoiding testing because they thought it was a way for ‘the government to control them’.
‘From what I have seen on some of our local group pages it comes down to conspiracy theories,’ she said.
Pictured is a man getting a COVID-19 test in Broadmeadows, one of Melbourne’s coronavirus hotspots
Testing has been ramped up in Melbourne after hundreds of new cases of coronavirus
While many residents living in coronavirus ‘red zones’ have come forward for testing, hundreds are refusing (pictured is a medic testing a driver for the virus in Keilor Downs)
‘We’ve see people turning around and saying it (the virus) is caused by 5G, there are other members of the community saying that this is the government’s way of controlling us.
‘And yet again we have other people who are claiming that this is just a virus and we all get the flu every year and this is no different.’
Another resident told Daily Mail Australia that she had seen a lot of anti-vaxxer comments on the Keilor Downs Neighbourhood Group on Facebook.
‘There were so many anti-vaxxer comments about the testing that they ended up being deleted,’ she said.
‘People think that this is a way for the government to control you. It is really disturbing.’
In another Facebook post one resident suggested that there was a link between 5G and COVID-19.
‘We don’t need to be rocket scientists to see the hotspots and the 5G areas are connected do we?’ the woman wrote
Some residents are claiming new 5G phone network towers are causing COVID-19 (pictured)
Many Facebook groups have called out conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers and said they will not tolerate the posting of misinformation on their pages (residents line up for testing in Melbourne)
Other community group pages have been forced to tell their members they will not accept the posting of misinformation.
‘We won’t tolerate plain stupidity or comments designed to deliberately upset people,’ one group moderator wrote.
‘This includes anti-vaxxer comments, there are plenty of groups for that.’
There have been almost 1,000 people in two hotspots – Broadmeadows and Keilor Downs – who have refused to take the test.
As of Thursday evening Victoria had 77 new cases of COVID-19 with many of them localised in Melbourne’s inner north and west.
The spike in cases prompted a lockdown across 10 postcodes from Thursday until July 29.
The spike in cases prompted the lockdown across 10 postcodes from Thursday until July 29 (staff pictured directing traffic queues waiting to get into a pop-up COVID-19 test site)
Residents of these postcodes will only be able to leave their homes to shop for food and supplies, to receive or provide care, to exercise and to study or work.
The state government has also confirmed veteran judge Jennifer Coate will lead the inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.
A large proportion of the state’s recent cases has been traced back to infection control breaches in hotels hosting returned travellers.
So far, 2,303 Victorians have had coronavirus and 20 people have died.
There are now 415 active cases and 20 patients in hospital, including four in intensive care.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said Melbourne residents now back in lockdown shouldn’t feel like they are alone during this time.
WHAT IS 5G AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
The evolution of the G system started in 1980 with the invention of the mobile phone which allowed for analogue data to be transmitted via phone calls.
Digital came into play in 1991 with 2G and SMS and MMS capabilities were launched.
Since then, the capabilities and carrying capacity for the mobile network has increased massively.
More data can be transferred from one point to another via the mobile network quicker than ever.
5G is expected to be 100 times faster than the currently used 4G.
Whilst the jump from 3G to 4G was most beneficial for mobile browsing and working, the step to 5G will be so fast they become almost real-time.
That means mobile operations will be just as fast as office-based internet connections.
Potential uses for 5g include:
- Simultaneous translation of several languages in a party conference call
- Self-driving cars can stream movies, music and navigation information from the cloud
- A full length 8GB film can be downloaded in six seconds.
5G is expected to be so quick and efficient it is possible it could start the end of wired connections.
By the end of 2020, industry estimates claim 50 billion devices will be connected to 5G.
The evolution of from 1G to 5G. The predicted speed of 5G is more than 1Gbps – 1,000 times greater than the existing speed of 4G and could be implemented in laptops of the future