‘People are questioning whether there is a relationship between the rollout of 5G and the number and severity of covid-19 cases in various countries. Claims have been made that the highest number of deaths attributed to covid-19 are in those places that deployed 5G during the past 2 years. So I decided to look into the matter but found it difficult to get accurate and consistent data about 5G globally so I decided to narrow my range to the United States.
I eventually found which U.S. cities had 5G coverage as of April 21, 2020 and compared those locations to covid-19 statistics for April 22, 2020.
In the U.S. there were four major telecom providers (Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T) until Sprint and T-Mobile merged. They use different frequencies and currently coverage is patchy at best.
5G consists of three frequency bands that can be labeled sub 1 GHz (i.e. below 1 GHz); sub 6 GHz and then much higher frequencies called mmwaves. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has yet to auction the mmwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum and so the highest frequencies to which people are exposed to currently are sub 6 GHz.
NOTE: 5G and 5 GHz are not the same. 5 GHz refers to a specific frequency (5 billion cycles per second) and 5G refers to a specific technology that relies on multiple frequencies.
Currently there are 58 cities in 32 states that have some form of 5G. Some states have only 1 provider while others have as many as four (if we consider Sprint and T-Mobile separately, for the time being). The number of cities with 5G within each state also varies with California having the most cities (nine) with 5G.
I compared the average number of cases, deaths, and tests for covid-19 per million population in states with and without 5G and this is what I found (Table 1). Note: The data are standardized for population, which enables us to compare states with smaller and larger populations.’
Read more: Is there an association between covid-19 cases/deaths and 5G in the United States?
