The World Health Organization declared the increasing spread of monkeypox in Africa a global health emergency on August 14 after a new variant of the virus was identified. 1,100 people have reportedly died in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the current outbreak of monkeypox or mpox began in January 2023. The highly contagious disease has now spread outside the continent, with cases emerging in Sweden and Pakistan.
As countries prepare themselves to battle the spread of the disease, a video of Donald Trump allegedly warning of election fraud in the US amid the spread of mpox started making the rounds on social media. In the video, Trump accused the “left wing” of trying to bring back lockdowns and reviving the Covid-19 hysteria as the US heads into the 2024 presidential elections.
In one such Instagram post the text inside the video read: “Trump warns of potential election fraud and lockdowns in connection with monkeypox.” Its archive can be seen here. The Free Press Journal also carried this video claiming that Trump warned of lockdowns and election fraud amid the mpox crisis.
India Today Fact Check found that this video has nothing to do with monkeypox. It is from August 31, 2023, and shows Trump talking about a new variant of Covid-19 that was spreading in the US at the time.
OUR PROBE
A reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video posted on a YouTube channel in September 2023, making it clear that this video predates the current monkeypox crisis. The description of the video stated that Trump attacked Democrats for efforts to bring back Covid-19 mandates ahead of the 2024 elections.
Further searches led us to multiple news reports about this video, dated August 30, 2023. According to them, Trump released this video, asking people of the United States to stand firmly against the resurgence of mask mandates, vaccine mandates and lockdowns in the country. He alleged that the sudden resurgence of alarm over new variants of Covid-19 in the US was meant to manipulate the upcoming elections.
He said, “The objective appears clear: stoking the flames of COVID hysteria to rationalise increased lockdowns, heightened censorship, questionable ballot collection methods, expanded mail-in voting, and massive financial favours for their political affiliates in the lead-up to the 2024 election.” Trump also added that if re-elected, he would cut federal funding to any school, college, airline or public transportation system that imposed a vaccine or mask mandate.
We also found the video, originally posted on the official Instagram account of Donald Trump on August 31, 2023.
Back in August 2023, several hospitals, colleges, and institutions reintroduced requirements for staff or visitors to wear masks to limit the spread of new coronavirus variants, EG.5 and BA.2.86. The admissions of patients suffering from COVID-19 in the US had been steadily rising since July 2023.
It is thus, clear that an old video of Trump speaking about a new variant of COVID-19 was falsely shared as his take on the spread of monkeypox.
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