China has made COVID-19 anal swab tests mandatory for nearly all international arrivals despite complaints that the procedure is humiliating.
The tests will be required for all travelers arriving at Beijing and Shanghai airports before they are allowed to enter the country.
Despite the degrading nature of the procedure, Chinese health authorities claim it is more effective at identifying COVID-19 than nasal swabs.
“The same procedure applies to visitors who came from countries where COVID-19 cases are high or they tested positive upon arrival,” reports IB Times. “If a person shows symptoms of diarrhea, he or she must also get an anal swab.”
Dr. David Samadi, MD @drdavidsamadi
Just a reminder of what China’s anal swab test for COVID looks like.
They have now made it mandatory for every foreign arrival into the country.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1367286820787077121
An alternative may be offered where travelers can provide stool samples instead, a procedure that is almost as humiliating anyway.
“If people are not familiar with the procedure for taking an anal swab test, our employees will help explain how it will be done,” a representative for the epidemic control department in the Daxing district of Beijing said.
As we highlighted earlier this week, Tokyo has asked Beijing to stop performing COVID-19 anal swabs on its citizens after complaints that the procedure causes “psychological pain.”
Reports also emerged that U.S. diplomatic staff had been forced to undergo this procedure, although China initially denied this then claimed it was an “error”.
Given that the media and western leaders have effusively praised China for its coronavirus response, which at one point included welding people inside their own homes, one wonders why they would have a problem with anal swabs.
Surely if anal swabs provide a better way of detecting COVID-19, they should be made mandatory worldwide? I can tell you one place I won’t be going soon.
Poster Comment:
The nasal swab used in the West is just a means of infecting us with nanoparticles. The important thing to do is to chemically analyze their swabs. An analysis of our swabs reveals that they are filled with nanoparticles to harm us.
