Social posts falsely claim long line of people in Omaha are waiting for mpox testing

On Aug. 14, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the increasing spread of mpox, also known as monkeypox, in Africa is a global public health emergency of international concern. 

Mpox has been spreading in African countries since an earlier outbreak in 2022. This year, 12 African countries have reported cases of mpox; the disease has also been reported in Sweden, Thailand, Philippines and Pakistan.

A video recently posted to X, Rumble, Facebook and TikTok has been repeatedly shared and has amassed millions of views. The video is being posted with captions that say it shows a long line of people waiting in Omaha, Nebraska, for mpox testing. 

THE QUESTION

Does this video show a long line of people waiting for mpox testing in Omaha?

THE SOURCES

• Video posted by X user John Jankovich from the Tim Walz rally in Omaha, Nebraska, on Aug. 17
• Aug. 23 X post from John Jankovich
• Aug. 17 Reddit post of photos from the Tim Walz rally
• World Health Organization
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• InVid and RevEye, video and photo forensics tools

THE ANSWER

No, this video doesn’t show a long line of people waiting for mpox testing. It shows a line for a Tim Walz rally in Omaha. There have been no reported cases of mpox in the U.S. this year. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The video doesn’t show people standing in line for mpox, also known as monkeypox, testing in Omaha, as the posts falsely claim. It actually shows people standing in line for an Aug. 17 rally in Omaha for Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. 

Using InVid, a video forensics tool, VERIFY analyzed the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. That led us to the original video posted on X by user John Jankovich on Aug. 17. 

“I can’t capture a video that does this turnout justice for the Tim Walz rally here in Omaha, NE. #BlueDot,” Jankovich’s X post with the original video says. 

In both videos being shared, the same line of people and The Astro theater in Omaha, where the rally was held, can be seen. The queue seen in the video also tallies with other images posted to social media from the rally.

Jankovich posted about the video being shared with the false claims in an Aug. 23 X post. 

“There is a video circulating around the internet that there was a massive mpox screening event in Omaha, NE. This is completely false. The video belongs to me,” Jankovich wrote.

No cases of mpox have been reported in the U.S. in 2024, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says “the risk of mpox coming into the United States is low.”

“CDC has made this assessment due to the limited number of travelers and no direct commercial flights from DRC or its neighboring countries to the United States. The risk might change as more information becomes available, or if more cases appear outside central and eastern Africa,” the CDC says. 

There has been a spike in online misinformation about mpox since the WHO declared the public emergency on Aug. 16, with some misrepresenting mpox by falsely comparing the outbreak to COVID-19. World Health Organization Regional Director for Europe Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge on Aug. 20 said “mpox is not the ‘new COVID.’”

Kluge said  the 2022 mpox outbreak in Europe was controlled thanks to “direct engagement” with the most affected communities among those infected. The WHO put in place robust surveillance, investigated new case contacts and provided health advice. He explained, “behavior change, non-discriminatory public health action and mpox vaccination contributed to controlling the outbreak.”

So how did this misinformation spread?

Jankovich’s original video was reposted on X, and the platform doesn’t allow the original video’s caption to be seen when it’s reposted with a new caption. Hijacking original content and mislabeling or misrepresenting it on social media is a common disinformation tactic. 

As with anything you might see on social media, you should always check the context and double-check what original content is being shared.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.