HIS BRAIN NOT CONNECTED TO HIS MOUTH? ‘WARM WATER’ MINISTER NOW SAYS HE ‘MISSPOKE’ – I MEANT 500 PARTICIPANTS, NOT 500 COUNTRIES!

Health Minister Adham Baba today clarified that he misspoke when he said the World Health Organisation (WHO) was comprised of “500 countries”.

“I mistakenly said 500 countries – what I meant was 500 participants from all around the world,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.

Adham (above) had made the “500 countries” comment during a video call to brief Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on the Covid-19 situation, which was uploaded on Facebook.

The Tenggara MP had told Zahid that he was engaged in a live video conference with WHO which he said made up of “500 countries”.

The United Nations has 193 countries as members.

Adham, in the report today, clarified that there were only 50 countries involved in the live video conference.

Adham’s inflated numbers had courted ridicule on social media.

As of this afternoon, the terms “Adham Baba”, “Health Minister” and the hashtags #500negara (#500 countries) were trending on Twitter in Malaysia.

Following the gaffe, Adham became the number three most popular search item in Malaysia on Google yesterday.

According to Google Trends, more than 10,000 lookups were made about the health minister.

The number one item was “How many countries in the world” with more than 20,000 searches and the number two was about the “One World: Together at Home” virtual concert.

The debacle comes barely a month since the minister faced some heat after spreading misinformation by suggesting that drinking warm water would prevent Covid-19 infection.

ANN