Post shares baseless claim about post-election suicides | Fact check

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 any time day or night, or chat online.

The claim: World Health Organization reported more than 2,000 suicides on Nov. 6 following Trump's win

A Nov. 6 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a picture of President-elect Donald Trump.

Text in the post says, "2,038 suicides have been reported today following Donald Trump's election win."

The post includes a screenshot that says, "2,038 Suicides today" with the source listed as the World Health Organization's Suicide Prevention Program.

The post was liked more than 5,000 times in a day. Other versions of the claim were shared on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

A WHO spokesperson said the claim is false. The organization doesn't publish daily suicide statistics.

Claim about post-election suicides is baseless

Trump won the Nov. 5 presidential election by a larger margin than many national polls predicted, causing millions of Vice President Kamala Harris' supporters to react with surprise and sadness.

But the post's claim about the WHO reporting an abnormally high number of suicides is baseless.

Tarik Ja?arevi?, a WHO spokesperson, told USA TODAY the organization didn't publish the figure shown in the post and doesn't release any daily suicide data.

The organization's suicide prevention page says more than 720,000 people die by suicide every year but doesn't include any information about daily totals. No recent figures are included in the WHO's mortality database, which hasn't been updated since February, and its latest worldwide suicide information booklet relies on data from 2019.

The website includes data sets that categorize suicide rates by age group, gender, country and region but doesn't feature any daily metrics.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website likewise includes monthly and yearly suicide rates but no daily tracker.

There are no credible reports about an abnormally high number of suicides on Nov. 6 from any other health agencies or news outlets.

The suicide prevention organization SAVE estimates that an average of 135 people die by suicide every day in the U.S., based on CDC data.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

• Tarik Ja?arevi?, Nov. 7, Email exchange with USA TODAY

• WHO, accessed Nov. 8, Suicide Prevention

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No daily suicide total released by WHO after Trump's win | Fact check