False claim emergency alert will activate chemicals in billions of people | Fact check
Joedy McCreary USA TODAY
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The claim: An emergency broadcast system test will activate graphene oxide particles in billions of people
A Sept. 20 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a video of a man urging people to turn off their cellphones during an upcoming test of the emergency broadcast system.
“This test will be used to send a specific high-frequency signal through devices like smartphones, radios and TVs with the intention of activating graphene oxide and other nanoparticles that have been inserted into billions of human beings around the
world through the obvious means,” he says.
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Our rating: False
The signal sent during the test poses no health risks. The claim appears to refer to misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines, which do not contain the graphene oxide chemical compound.
FEMA alert can’t activate body’s graphene oxide because ‘it’s not there anyway’
Every TV, radio and cellphone in the U.S. will blast the shrill, unmistakable sound of a warning tone around 2:20 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 4 when the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission conduct a routine test of the
emergency broadcast system.
During the two-part test, the Emergency Alert System will send a signal to radios and TVs, and the Wireless Emergency Alert system will do the same with cellphones. Cellphones should only receive the alert once. The TV and radio test will last about one
minute.
Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines aren't magnetic
The purpose is to ensure that the system is still an efficient way to notify Americans of emergencies, FEMA spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said in an email to USA TODAY – not to trigger any substances in the body, as the Instagram post claims.
FEMA is unaware of any adverse health effects caused by the signal, Edwards said.
“In what world can some sort of FEMA alert system activate some sort of compound in our bodies, in billions of people?” Dr. Thomas Russo, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo’s Department of Medicine, told USA
TODAY. “It’s just not plausible.”
The reference in the claim to “obvious means” appears to be rooted in persistent misinformation about the contents of the COVID-19 vaccines, Russo said.
USA TODAY previously debunked claims that the vaccines contain graphene oxide, a compound used in labs to test if the mRNA in the vaccine can lead to the production of a spiked protein. It is not an ingredient in the vaccine itself.
“It’s just part of the validation process," said Russo. "It’s completely separate from the manufacturing process. There is no graphene oxide in the mRNA vaccine.”
The post’s caption also contains a false claim that the signal will be sounded at an atypical frequency that will “activate” the graphene oxide. The tone is identical to the one used since the emergency broadcast system started in 1963, Edwards
said.
Russo also said it was impossible for the substance to be activated in any way by such a signal, asking, “What does that mean?”
“It can’t be done,” he said, “because it’s not there anyway.”
Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of graphite with distinctive properties, has been at the center of misinformation about what is in COVID-19 vaccines. USA TODAY previously debunked a claim that graphene oxide could be used to remotely track vaccinated
individuals.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/09/29/no-risk-of-chemical-activation-from-fema-emergency-alert-covid-19-fact-check/70990696007/
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