Last year, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus railed against global inequalities in COVID-19 vaccine access, even delaying his own vaccination until the shot was more widely available.
Nevertheless, claims that he has not been vaccinated at all have gained traction recently.
A July 16 post from alternative video-sharing platform BitChute has helped spread the false assertion. It shows a 35-second long video of Ghebreyesus answering a question about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
"I wanted to wait until Africa and other countries in other regions, low-income countries, start vaccination," the WHO chief says in the video. "So I was protesting, in other words, because we're failing."
The BitChute post, which was titled "WHO director Dr. Tedros justifying his non-vaccinated status," was shared more than 160 times on Facebook, according to social media data aggregator CrowdTangle, and accumulated more than 9,500 views.
Similar posts on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok garnered thousands of shares, views and likes across the platforms, including an Aug. 3 tweet of the video that was retweeted more than 6,500 times.
But the claim is false. The clip does not include Ghebreyesus' full response, in which he says he was vaccinated on May 12, 2021.
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