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| - Fact Check: No, WHO chief did not say 'Covid-19 is nowhere near us'
The WHO chief did not say, "Covid-19 is nowhere near us," as claimed by the social media users. His actual words were, "New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over."
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India Today Fact Check
The WHO chief did not say this at all. In fact, his actual words were, ‘New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over.’
Another contagious omicron mutant of Covid-19 has reportedly been gaining ground in India. The variant called BA.2.75, per reports, may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. But this grim news is made more worrying when you couple it with continued misinformation about Covid-19.
A quote from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, has been making the rounds on social media. And this quote seemingly stands at odds against what has been reported.
“Covid-19 is nowhere near us,” the post seemingly from a Punjabi news portal quotes Ghebreyesus.
AFWA’s investigation, however, found that the viral quote was false. What Ghebreyesus actually said is almost the opposite of what the quote says.
AFWA Probe
The post going viral had the logo of Prime Asia TV, a Canada-based Punjabi TV channel. And when we checked its Facebook post, we found the same post there.
The same post was also shared by on Punjab Today 24 and Punjab Live.
What did the WHO chief say about Covid-19?
Ghebreyesus said, “New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over.” He further said during a press conference on July 12 that the “virus is running freely, and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalisation for acute cases and the expanding number of people with the post-Covid-19 condition, often referred to as long-Covid.”
He also said that there was a disconnect in the disease’s risk perception between scientific communities, political leaders, and the general public. He said it is “a dual challenge of communicating risk and building community trust in health tools and public health social measures like masking, distancing, and ventilation”.
LIVE: Media briefing on #COVID19 and other global health issues with @DrTedros. https://t.co/19v8kl4CG1 — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 12, 2022
Thus, it is clear that the words of the WHO chief were twisted to make it look like Covid-19 might not be a problem anymore. In reality, however, the pandemic is far from over.
(With inputs from Yash Mittal)
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