MOH Addresses Claim That Malaysia is Following The US in Withdrawing from The World Health Organization

Previously, we shared how the United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO) following an executive order by President Donald Trump on his first day of returning to the Oval Office.

WHO has since responded to the decision, urging Trump to reconsider the decision as with the United States and other member countries on board, the organisation rolled out the biggest reforms in its history over the last 7 years to boost accountability, cost-effectiveness and impact globally.

A viral blog post claimed that Malaysia is also withdrawing from the WHO

With that in mind, there has been a viral blog post circulating in our country recently, claiming that Malaysia, too, will withdraw from the WHO and that a press conference on the matter was allegedly set to be held on 24 January.

The article was published on Substack and seemed to be AI-generated, including the very clear use of AI-generated images.

Despite the obvious clues that the contents of the blog post are AI-generated, many unfortunately still believed the article, to the point that Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad had to address the viral post.

Taking to Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad’s official Facebook page, his social media admin shared a screenshot of the blog post to announce that the claim that Malaysia is exiting WHO is fake. 

The Facebook post asserted,

“For the public’s information, the write-up in this blog is fake. Malaysia is not withdrawing from WHO. There is no media conference. Don’t share if you’re not sure.”

For context, Malaysia joined WHO in April 1958, as Malaya, some one year after gaining independence, and has been a mainstay in the organisation since.

Also read: Donald Trump Withdraws United States from the World Health Organization Over “Covid-19 Mishandling”