Was a relatively recent variant of COVID-19 given its name because of 5G mobile phone signals? No, that's not true: New COVID strains are given names according to defined classification systems.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on September 27, 2023, with a text overlay (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff) that read:
You don't have corona, strain EG.5... You are dusted/poisoned! The organism is cleansed of those poisons that were thrown at us + there is also that 5.G network after which they named it. There is no coincidence with Satanists
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Nov 9 19:03:31 2023 UTC)
The claim that the COVID EG.5 variant was named after 5G phone networks originally appeared in a video shared on Facebook on August 12, 2023.
The man in that video says:
A new COVID variant that just came out. Look at what it's called: 'EG.5'. New COVID variant EG.5. Now say it backwards with me: 5G! 5G!
There is no proof of any connection between 5G mobile technology and COVID.
As the COVID pandemic evolved and the virus mutated, the World Health Organization developed a naming system for identifying variants of interest and variants of concern "using letters of the Greek alphabet". For example, Alpha, Beta, Delta and so on.
The constant evolution of a virus creates subtle differences that are tracked by researchers to create a family tree of evolution. For example, the Alpha variant has several lineages or subvariants. A specific system was designed by scientists in April 2020 called the Pango Lineage System. The system works by using a letter separated by full stops and numbers.
The Alpha variant is labeled "B.1.1.7", the Beta variant is labeled "B.1.351" and the Gamma variant is labeled "P.1".
COVID EG.5 is a descendant of the Omicron variant "B.1.1.529" and was given its name via the Pango Lineage System, not because it is linked to 5G phone networks.
Ever since 5G phone networks emerged there have been multiple health conspiracy theories about the technology. Lead Stories has previously written stories disputing claims that 5G amplified COVID symptoms, 5G caused neurological damage in firefighters and 5G killed birds.
