D.H.S. Addresses Fake Facebook Post

On the Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero

The Ministry of Health has responded to a social media post in which someone duplicated its Facebook page and posted a fake release on critical of Chinese establishments.  This evening, Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero, addressed the issue and says that the ministry has made an official request to have the false page taken down.

On the phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“What our attention was drawn to is that there was a bulletin that the ministry had seemingly put out reference Chinese restaurants and the food that they serve.  Just as a word of caution, that’s not the way we usually put out our news.  We don’t do bulletins in that format, all our official information comes out through the Government of Belize Press Office.  That’s one; and two, when we went back to review the page, our Facebook is Ministry of Health Belize.  This one was coming from Ministry of Health in Belize.  So what we did was, we asked persons who had been reporting it to actually report the page so that it can be taken down.  I haven’t checked today to see of the status would allow this page to still be up and running.  Well according to this Facebook policy to which we subscribe, which is having a page, we just have to report the page until it is taken down by Facebook.  The minister did ask if we could get an investigation launched in terms of cyber security.  Our page was not hacked, it’s just a duplicate page that was created.  So what we had tried caution everybody is to be mindful of communication that was shared so loosely without verifying it.”