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The video is from May 2023.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) accompanied by a video of the World Health Organization(WHO) Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, allegedly retracting his alert on the Mpox global health emergency is false.
The post reads: “The head of the WHO backtracking has declared (“on the advice of the experts”)that monkeypox is now NOT a global health emergency. What happened in a week to change his mind? Have the patriots got the situation under control?”
The video was also shared on other accounts.
To establish the veracity of the post, Woman Kenya Network conducted a reverse search image on Google which revealed that the video was shared on multiple X (formerly Twitter) accounts particularly in August 2024.
A deeper investigation using a keyword search on Google uncovered a 1-minute, 30-second YouTube clip published on May 11, 2023, titled “Mpox No Longer a Global Health Emergency, WHO Declares.”
In the video, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus announces the reversal of the global health emergency status for Mpox. He emphasizes, however, that countries should continue implementing measures to manage and control the disease, similar to ongoing efforts with COVID-19.
Further investigation revealed that between 2022 and 2023, a significant global outbreak of Mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox) occurred, with over 90,000 reported cases across 110 countries, largely attributed to the Clade 2b strain. However, WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reversed the emergency alert on May 11, 2023, after the second emergency committee meeting, indicating a shift in the status of the outbreak as cases began to decline and control measures took effect.
In 2024, WHO declared a global health emergency of international concern on August 15 following the detection of a deadlier variant of Mpox. This declaration was in response to the upsurge in cases reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries. The resurgence of Mpox cases, coupled with the emergence of this more dangerous variant, has reignited concerns and calls for coordinated international action to contain the outbreak.
Independent fact-checkers, Newschecker and PesaCheck also flagged the viral video as false.
Woman Kenya Network investigated the viral video claiming that WHO had lifted the August 2024 global health emergency declaration on Mpox and found it to be false.
This fact-check was written by Woman Kenya Network fact-checker Trizah Mmwanda and edited by Woman Kenya Project lead Shadrack Agamira.
This fact-check was produced by Woman Kenya Network, under the African Fact-Checking Incubator program, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).
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