• Very viral on social networks, a "calendar" would announce the emergence of a variant of Covid-19 each month until the beginning of the year 2023.

  • The logos of the WHO, the World Economic Forum and the American Johns Hopkins University appear on this document.

  • This is a false document, the World Economic Forum and the WHO said.

    This document is wrong about the identification dates of the Delta and Omicron variants, not to mention the fact that it is difficult to predict the evolution of Covid-19.

A deceptive "timetable".

A message announcing the “launch” dates of different Covid-19 variants is currently circulating on social networks.

According to this document, written in Spanish, the Omicron variant should have appeared in May 2022 and the Delta variant should have been "launched" in June 2021. It also provides for the emergence of a new variant per month until February. 2023.

This more than doubtful table has been circulating online at least since this summer.

It has been shared again since the emergence of the Omicron variant, accompanied by comments in English, German, Russian or even Greek…

FAKE OFF

This list bears the logos of the WHO, the World Economic Forum and the American Johns Hopkins University.

However, no trace of it can be found on the websites of these three institutions.

"It is a false document that has nothing to do with the World Economic Forum," said a spokesperson for the institution to our colleagues from the Irish news site The Journal.

The WHO has also denied any link with this calendar to the American fact-checking site FactCheck.org.

Contrary to what is claimed in this timeline, the Delta variant was first detected in October 2020 in India, according to the WHO.

The Omicron variant was identified in November in several countries.

In addition, the variants identified so far by the WHO (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron) have not each appeared one month apart, as the document "predicts".

Alpha was identified in September 2020, over a year ago.

Beta was sequenced in May 2020 and Gamma in November of the same year.

It is also difficult to establish in advance the evolution of Sars Cov-2, as noted by British professor Ed Feil in May.

It is complicated, under these conditions, to trust such a list.

Health

Coronavirus: Is the planet right to panic in the face of the Omicron variant?

Media

Report information that you think is false to the "Fake Off" team of "20 Minutes"

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