PTI Fact Check: No, WHO didn’t term Covid-19 common flu; 2020 World Doctors Alliance video shared with false claim
New Delhi, Jan 03 (Abhinav Gupta / Pratyush Ranjan PTI Fact Check): A Twitter user shared a video claiming the World Health Organisation (WHO) termed Coronavirus as the common flu in a recent announcement. The PTI Fact Check Desk found in its investigation that the footage dated back to 2020 and was shared as recent with a misleading claim.
Claim
The PTI Fact Check Desk received a tweet on its Fact Check WhatsApp No. +81-8130503759 with a request to verify the claim in the video shared in the post.
The tweet read: “Breaking News: WHO accepted its mistake and took a complete U-turn and said that Corona is a seasonal virus, it’s a cough, cold and sore throat that occurs during the change of weather, there is no need to panic.”
Here is the link and the archive link to the tweet:
Below is the screenshot of the tweet-
Investigation
Starting the investigation, the Desk submitted the tweet URL in the InVid Tool to check the details of the video and find its keyframes.
A Google Reverse Image Search on one of the keyframes led us to a video by ACU (Außerparlamentarischer Corona- Untersuchungsausschuss) dated Nov 13, 2020. The video headline read: “A better normal, not a new normal! Foundation of the WDA – World”.
The video was of a panel of the World Doctors Alliance doctors who gathered in Berlin in Oct 2020 to discuss the coronavirus pandemic.
When the Desk watched the entire 18:17-minute video, it noticed that the clip shared in the tweet was a small chunk of the original video.
The original video showed the same footage (As shared in the recent tweet) between 16:35 – 17:21 minutes in which Heiko Schöning, a doctor from Germany, said: “Yes, so these are the statements of experts, doctors, and other scientists and activists all over the world. And we have this good message: we see no evidence of a medical pandemic. So, it looks like a plandemic. And we all together say: we don’t want this “new normal,” certainly. And we don’t want to go back to the old normal because the old normal created this situation of “new normal. We want a better normal, and we want it together with you! Thank you very much indeed!”
The English transcript of the video suggested that the people in the video were doctors from different countries participating in the WDA. They gathered in Berlin to announce the World Doctors Alliance under the roof of ACU2020.ORG on October 10, 2020.
Here is the link to the video:
Below is the screenshot of the video-
Below is the combined image of the screenshots of both videos-
In the subsequent investigation step, the Desk scanned the WHO’s official website and social media handles but could not find any report or video as claimed in the tweet shared recently.
Also, had the WHO made any such announcement, it would have grabbed the headlines across news websites. However, we could not find any authentic media report on the claim made in the viral tweet.
Also, we could not find any such statement or announcement made by the WHO on its official website and Twitter handle.
While going through the website, the Desk found an article by WHO Director-General dated March 3, 2020, which claimed that the ‘Coronavirus is not SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), it’s not MERS (Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome), and it’s not influenza. It is a unique virus with unique characteristics.
Here is the link to the article, and below is the article’s screenshot.
We also found that the WHO website advised people to get vaccinated, maintain social distancing, wear face masks and follow other Covid-19 guidelines to keep safe and curb the spread of the virus.
Here is the link and screenshot of the website:
With the details gathered, the Desk concluded that a 2020 video of WDA was shared on social media as recent with a false claim.
Claim
The WHO said that the coronavirus was a “seasonal virus” and not a pandemic and that the people did not need to panic.
Fact
The WHO never termed coronavirus as a seasonal virus. An old video of March 2020 from a different global health agency was shared with a false claim.
Conclusion
A Twitter user claimed that the WHO changed its stance on the coronavirus and now termed it a “seasonal virus.” The Desk found in its investigation that the video was dated back to October 2020 and was from a different health group. The user shared it with a false claim on social media.
You can contact PTI Fact Check on WhatsApp Number +91-8130503759 and share any claim or social media post you think is essential to fact-check and want us to verify.
