False: 5G frequencies will activate the Marburg virus in people vaccinated against COVID-19.

By: Annie Priya
July 25 2022

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Context:

After Ghana announced two cases of Marburg virus infections in July 2022, social media users started sharing misleading and false content linking the disease to 5G technology and COVID-19 vaccines. One shared a Rumble video with the caption, "Marburg will be activated in the Vaxxed via 5G." The video claims those who received the COVID-19 vaccines would already have the dormant Marburg virus encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles, which can be "activated" via 5G frequencies.

In fact:

The COVID-19 vaccines are not a tool to connect individuals to 5G networks. According to the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) website, the term "nanoparticles" is related to the size of a particle between 1 and 100 nanometers. An article published by the Chemical and Engineering News on March 6, 2021, noted that lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) used in the COVID-19 vaccines contain four ingredients: ionizable lipids, pegylated lipids, phospholipids, and cholesterol molecules.

These LNPs in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna contains messenger RNA (mRNA) that enters a cell through an endosome. When the LNP is inside the acidic endosome, the ionizable lipids become positively charged and help release the LNP and mRNA into the cell's cytoplasm. Once free, the mRNA is translated by ribosomes to make proteins. Therefore, it only protects and transports the mRNA effectively to the right place in cells. 

The Conversation article published on January 22, 2021, reported that Dr. Archa Fox at the University of Western Australia explained how some companies develop different mRNA vaccines mixing with materials called hydrogels, a crosslinked hydrophilic polymer that does not dissolve in water. This hydrogel helps stem cells survive after being put inside human bodies. However, Pfizer's COVID-19 mRNA vaccines do not include hydrogels as a component, nor does the Moderna vaccine. 

In January 2022, Logically fact-checked a claim on nano router technology in vaccines, noting that the ingredients of all approved COVID-19 vaccines have been publicized, and there is no evidence of this kind of technology or material in the vaccines. These claims closely relate to the 5G conspiracy theory, which espouses the myth that people can be controlled and harmed with mobile technology.

On October 1, 2021, a CNBC report clarified that COVID-19 vaccines are administered with 25 to 22-gauge needles. They have internal diameters ranging between 0.26 and 0.41 millimeters. Although a nano chip with 5G functionality is tiny enough at 0.125 millimeters, it only functions when attached to a coil antenna that makes the single-chip system about the size of a grain of rice. It would require a syringe about 13 times larger than the one used to inject the vaccines.

The World Health Organization states that once an individual is infected with the Marburg virus, it can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact through broken skin with infected people's blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids, surfaces, and materials. 

The first-ever Marburg outbreak was reported in Germany in 1967. Laboratory work using African green monkeys imported from Uganda was associated with the outbreak. After that, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.

The verdict:

The lipid nanoparticles in the mRNA vaccine are used to protect and transport the vaccine component. They do not contain any nanotechnology or the Marburg virus. 5G networks causing viral infections are a myth. Hence, we have marked this claim as false.