British boxer Amir Khan posted his outlandish COVID-19 conspiracy theory in a bizarre series of rants posted via Instagram over the weekend. The 33-year-old former world champion and 2004 Olympic Silver medalist essentially posited that the coronavirus pandemic was directly linked to the development of 5G cellphone towers.
“I don’t think it’s coming from China,” Khan said. “That’s a lie, really.”
Khan’s wild theory, which goes against just about everything legitimate health officials around the world have been saying since the outbreak began, is that the coronavirus is a man-made disease created for a purpose.
“It’s a man-made thing,” Khan said. “It’s been put there for a reason – while they test 5G.”
Khan: ‘It Might Be for Population Control’
Basically, Khan’s wild theory is that governments around the world conspired to create COVID-19 so that they could do two things. They wanted to test new cell phone technology and do something to help control the population.
“It might be for population control – get rid of a lot of us, especially when they say that it harms old people,” Khan said.
In the since-deleted video which was captured by Mirror, Khan primarily seemed to go back and forth between those two ideas discursively as he discusses them with his followers.
“Look at these towers at night-time that have been put up, then telling people not to go out,” Khan added.
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Dangerous Theory Debunked as ‘Complete and Utter Rubbish’
Per that same Mirror report, England’s national medical director Stephen Powis debunked Khan’s COVID-19 theory: “The 5G story is complete and utter rubbish, it’s nonsense, it’s the worst kind of fake news.”
Powis said he was “outraged and disgusted” over reports that people in the UK were buying into the theory Khan shared and setting cellphone towers ablaze all around the area over recent days.
“The reality is the mobile phone networks are absolutely critical to all of us, especially when we’re at home and unable to see families and friends,” Powis said.
Recent Events Show Why Celebrities Should Be Careful with Social Media Shares
Khan obviously didn’t create the theory but his status as a celebrity in the UK suggests he should probably be more careful about what kinds of things he spreads on social media. The popular boxer has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram and at least three cell phone towers in the UK have been brought down over the last few days.
Per NPR, at least two of those instances came with accompanying videos and online posts that suggested the attacks were directly linked to conspiracy theories like Khan’s that assert 5G networks are the cause of COVID-19.
The BBC reports there is no evidence to suggest that’s the case, but the conspiracy theory seems to be gaining traction anyway.
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Amir Khan’s Outlandish ‘Man-Made’ COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory