The Absurd 5G Conspiracy, a Sudoku Surge, and a Demand for Plastic Surgery
A roundup of Covid-19 stories we’re reading today
Published in
2 min readMay 19, 2020
- Since the early days of the pandemic, believers of the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory have been burning down cellphone towers out of fear that they spread Covid-19. They don’t, of course — the disease is caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. For a time, it seemed that the absurd arson cases were limited to the U.K., but as Ars Technica reports, Americans are now burning cellphone towers down too.
- The cancellation of televised sports due to the pandemic left a void in the daily lives of sports fans, but an unlikely form of competition has emerged as a salve: Sudoku puzzles, solved in extremely popular YouTube videos, were described as an “unlikely lockdown hit” by The Guardian. As a breathless review on the Verge noted: “It’s a promise that even the most impossible-looking challenges can be solved — and in today’s world, what could be more reassuring than that?”
- In addition to sparking a craze for numerical puzzles, the dearth of televised sports has also sounded a warning bell for sports networks — with one exception. ESPN has come out on top, thanks to The Last Dance, the critically acclaimed, 10-part docu-series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls that’s now the network’s most-watched series of all time. As Tom Jones in Poynter writes, “it saved the day for ESPN.”
- These days, most faces are obscured by masks, Zoom filters, or the pixelation of laptop cameras, but for some people, perfection remains paramount. Dr. Steven Levine, a top plastic surgeon in New York City, tells The Cut that his wealthiest clients are “begging” to get work done during the pandemic. “They want to take advantage of this perceived downtime,” he says.
