Eamonn Holmes has clarified his controversial comments about coronavirus and 5G on This Morning.
On Monday, the presenter made headlines when he appeared to defend a theory blaming 5G for the outbreak, despite the fact this has already been debunked.
“I totally agree with everything you’re saying, but what I don’t accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true, when they don’t know it’s not true,” he said.
“No one should attack or damage or do anything like that, but it’s very easy to say it is not true because it suits the state narrative. That’s all I would say as someone with an inquiring mind.”
The incident was quickly criticised by both viewers and the science community, with Ofcom revealing that they were assessing the matter “as a priority”.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s This Morning, shortly after Ofcom’s announcement, Eamonn read a short statement clarifying his comments, suggesting what he said “may have” been “misinterpreted”.
“I want to clarify some comments that some of you may have misinterpreted from me yesterday, around conspiracy theories and Coronavirus and this involved the roll out of 5G,” he began.
“Both Alice Beer and myself agreed in a discussion on this very programme on fake news that it is not true that there is a connection between the present national health emergency and 5G and to suggest otherwise would be wrong and indeed it could be possibly dangerous. Every theory relating to such a connection has been proven to be false and we would like to emphasise that.”
Eamonn continued: “However, many people are rightly concerned and are looking for answers, and that’s simply what I was trying to impart yesterday but for the avoidance of any doubt I want to make it clear there’s no scientific evidence to substantiate any of those 5G theories.”
The broadcaster previously hit back at one Twitter user who accused him of “spread[ing] the baseless 5G/Coronavirus conspiracy theory” shortly after the broadcast, insisting: “I didn’t spread it.... I reserve the right to listen and question.”
Amanda Holden recently found herself at the centre of a similar controversy when a link to a petition suggesting 5G is linked to coronavirus appeared on her Twitter page earlier this month.
However, she insisted she had accidentally tweeted the link, and does not believe in 5G conspiracy theories.
“Amanda was sadly emailed a petition suggesting 5G is linked to coronavirus, did not know she’d accidentally tweeted a link to it, and does not believe in 5G conspiracies,” her rep said.
The independent fact-checking organisation Full Fact previously insisted there was no truth to the claims that there was a link between 5G and coronavirus.
This Morning airs every weekday from 10am on ITV.