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On January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, raising concerns about impacts on funding for global disease prevention, pandemic preparedness, and polio eradication. Several social media posts from East and West African countries discussed how the withdrawal may impact the continent. Many posts suggested that this is a wake-up call for African nations to be less dependent on international aid. While some posts expressed concern about how low-income nations will be affected, other users praised the withdrawal. Posts called WHO “the greatest enemy to man,” corrupt, and “satanic.” Claims also circulated that all vaccines are dangerous and unnecessary.

On January 22, Pakistan confirmed its first polio case of 2025 in Dera Ismail Khan. Half of the cases recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year were in the DI Khan district. News coverage of the case highlights the country’s failure to eliminate polio “despite spending billions of dollars” to do so. Many social media users responded to the news by accusing the government of profiting from polio, claiming that the disease will never be eliminated as long as the country receives polio funding. Some posts list polio eradication alongside government corruption and terrorism as threats to Pakistan. Others claim Pakistanis are being targeted for experimentation and extinction.

Reports are circulating online about several groups of people who are boycotting polio vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. One boycott was organized by tribal leaders in Lakki Marwat in support of the families of the factory workers kidnapped by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group. The tribal leaders also threatened to hold widespread protests and block a gas pipeline into Punjab until the abductees were returned. Other groups proposed boycotts to pressure the government to restore access to electricity and gas. Finally, local news outlets reported that female polio workers in the province were conducting a boycott, a claim that the workers disputed as baseless and a conspiracy to create a rift between them and the government.

Conspiracy theories about polio eradication efforts circulated online following reports of the detection of additional polio cases in Pakistan in 2024. Several social media users accused the government of lying about polio and refusing to eliminate polio in order to continue receiving international funding, while others questioned why polio eradication is a priority when other diseases kill more people. Some posts disparaged polio vaccines, blamed Afghan refugees and ethnic minorities for polio spread, and claimed polio is a conspiracy against Pakistanis.