Conspiracy theories have been around for decades. Some of them tend to survive and even thrive. In recent years, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, new conspiracy theories have also emerged.
Here are five new conspiracy theories that have all been debunked by science. Maybe you've heard of one?
Vaccines make the body a magnet
One of the ridiculous conspiracy theories that has spread since the start of the pandemic is that a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine causes people's bodies to become magnetized.
This misinformation is spread in the form of videos on various social media. In many countries, this video is also circulating, especially in WhatsApp groups. The video shows people claiming that after vaccination, metal objects such as coins and fridge magnets stuck to their arms. The people in the video claim that the vaccine has caused this effect.
One version of the theory even claims that magnetic elements are intentionally added to vaccines to make the ingredients move throughout the body.
This conspiracy theory was then widely debunked, one of which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. They stated that the COVID-19 vaccine did not contain any metals or materials that would generate a magnetic field.
Carl Fichtenbaum, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said if there was any possibility of magnetism caused by the COVID-19 vaccine, of course it would show up in early trials.
"What's interesting to me is that I've never seen anyone put a compass on their arm because the compass if it is under a magnetic field will be disturbed," he added.
5G causes COVID-19
Another conspiracy theory regarding the pandemic is that 5G causes COVID-19 illness. The essence of the theory is that the 5G mobile signal sent by the 5G tower is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the conspiracy theory, 5G towers suppress the immune system or spread SARS-CoV-2 via radio waves, causing infected people to catch COVID-19.
As the fact-checking agency Full Fact reports, no claims of 5G causing COVID-19 are supported by strong evidence. And after all, the Corona virus pandemic is hitting countries that don't even have 5G infrastructure.
Dr Simon Clarke, professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading told the BBC in April last year that this theory was absolutely rubbish.
"The human immune system can be compromised by all sorts of things including fatigue or not eating, diet. Also, 5G radio waves are at the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum, and are less powerful than light or sunlight. They are not strong enough to damage cells." he said.
Wind turbine fields cause cancer
This one may not be a conspiracy theory, but a claim propagated by former US President Donald Trump. Speaking at a Republican fundraising event in 2019, Trump then told the audience, "If you have a wind turbine near where you live, your house has just gone down 75% in value. And they say the noise of the turbine fields causes cancer."
A wind turbine farm is a series of wind turbines located in the same location to produce energy from wind energy. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred single turbines and cover an area of up to hundreds of square miles.
The American Cancer Society told The New York Times in 2019 that it had found no credible evidence linking noise from windmill wind turbines to cancer.
Previously, the health effects caused by wind turbines have been a topic of debate with the unofficial term Wind Turbine Syndrome. The term appears to allegedly refer to symptoms such as sleep deprivation and mental fatigue for those living less than two kilometers from wind turbines. The syndrome is not recognized as a medical condition by the National Institutes of Health.
A 2014 report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that epidemiological studies have shown an association between living near wind turbines and disturbance. But the report added that, based on a critical review of other reports, no clear or consistent link was seen between noise from wind turbines and reported disease, or other indicators of harm to human health.
The US makes a COVID chip that is implanted into the body
Earlier this year there were claims that the US Department of Defense made an injectable COVID-19 detection chip, causing fear among believers.
This claim stems from the statement of Matt Hepburn, a military doctor who previously worked for DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In an interview on CBS TV station, Hepburn once said he had been ordered to suppress the pandemic and discussed research projects such as sensors that use light signals to detect disease.
Hepburn said the interview was twisted and caused public misunderstanding. "No microchips, no electronics, no rumored items. The technology won't be able to tell if we have COVID-19," he said.
Hepburn explained that the technology is actually a hydrogel that can be made to react and fire if it senses an increase in the level of tissue lactate under the skin, which may indicate if someone is about to fall ill. In short, the technology is not a COVID-detection microchip at all.
Humans once lived on Mars and ruined it
This theory went viral via a video on TikTok. This video has hundreds of thousands of likes. In essence, the theory states that Mars is red because of dust from a nuclear explosion. There is evidence that once there was water flowing on this planet that had dried up due to destructive human actions.
But the theory didn't last long, partly because of the absurd timescales. Early human fossils in Africa date back between 6 million and 2 million years, according to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, while Mars' watery past dates back billions of years.
In addition, Mars is red because its surface is covered in iron oxide, also known as rust, and not nuclear dust. Citing a report from the journal Nature in 2004, the reason for the rust condition on Mars is that the temperature is not hot enough to melt iron oxide, allowing it to sink to the planet's core, unlike on Earth.
"I don't know of any other explanation for Mars now decaying," said John Murray at the Open University in England's Milton Keynes at the time.
