The World Health Organization has been the target of conspiracy theories since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, making bogus claims that the world health body has engineered disease outbreaks and wants to extend its global powers.
The WHO faced multiple false claims circulated online in 2023 that it was attempting to grab power by forcing countries to lock down in the event of future pandemics, a story that has now been widely debunked.
This week, a more low-brow accusation was posted online that its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had been filmed at a party dancing in a revealing outfit.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user nikola3/@ronin19217435, on January 16, 2024, viewed 351,000 times, shows a video of a man in short shorts and undersized tank top at a bar. A caption above the video reads “Meet Tedros… The Head of the WHO!”
A voiceover says “This is Tedros, head of the WHO, who will soon have control over every country and the plandemic. Do you trust him? I don’t.”
The Facts
The account that posted this video is known for spreading false and unverified claims on X. This claim about Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is no different.
The video has been online since at least 2020, amid the global pandemic, and has been thoroughly debunked.
As found by fact-checking site Myth Detector, the video was recorded in Brazil on February 16, 2020, the same date that Ghebreyesus was attending a security conference in Munich, Germany.
Myth Detector used footage of a TV screen in the background of the shot to determine that the program Domingão do Faustão was aired on February 16, 2020.
Brazilian newspaper and website EXTRA contacted the bar in 2020, by calling a number on the waiting staff uniform; it was told the video was shot “a long time ago” adding that at the time of the call “the bar has been closed for almost 90 days.”
As stated by Myth Detector, Ghebreyesus, was in Munich between February 14 and 16, 2020, delivering a speech on February 15 which can still be viewed online. He also took part in a press conference in Geneva for the WHO on February 17, 2020.
The video posted on X appeared to come from a TikTok account called @jamiconstitutionchick, which is no longer online.
Newsweek has contacted a media representative at the World Health Organization for comment.
Former White House senior energy adviser John Podesta was the subject of similar claims in 2018 when he was attributed to a video of a nude man wearing body paint at a house party. The video circulated online for several years despite being repeatedly debunked.
In 2022, Ghebreyesus was also falsely claimed to have been arrested for crimes against humanity, despite the claim originating from a “satire” website.
The Ruling
False.
The video is not of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It was filmed in 2020 at a bar in Brazil while Ghebreyesus was at a security conference in Munich. The date when the video was shot has been cross-referenced and debunked by multiple fact-checking outlets.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.