Various versions of the claim that the World Health Organization (WHO) has secretly changed its definition of herd immunity have spread around social media in the past week.
Most of these posts claim that the WHO changed its definition of “herd immunity” from something that could be achieved through the processes of vaccination or antibodies developed after infection, to a threshold achieved and defined only by vaccination levels.
One such claim compares screenshots from the WHO website in June and November to show that the definition has changed. Other claims have referred to a WHO definition from before 2020.
But all of them have one important thing in common: they’re missing the context behind the WHO changes, none of which have been done in secret.
Did the WHO “secretly” change their definition of herd immunity?
The WHO has changed their definition of herd immunity on their COVID-19 page over the course of the year.
But it hasn’t been done in secret. They’ve explained why they’ve made such changes whenever updates are made. And the organization’s website specifically says that the information on the page could change and evolve over time.
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