- Chinese government confirmed its first case of monkeypox.
- A senior health official in China issued a warning.
- He said, “Don’t touch the foreigners.”
A day after the mainland Chinese government confirmed its first case of monkeypox, a senior health official in China issued a warning against touching foreigners.
Until a case “slipped through the net,” the country’s Covid-19 limits and stringent border controls had kept monkeypox from spreading, according to Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The municipality of Chongqing in the southwest reported finding that case. Local authorities stated that a “international arrival” was under required Covid-19 quarantine when the illness was found; however, they did not specify whether the person was a foreign or Chinese national.
Monkeypox, which manifests as blister-like lesions and flu-like symptoms, started to spread globally in May. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recorded 23,500 cases in the US so far this year.
Wu stressed the potential of disease transmission through international travel and close contact in his post, saying “It is urgent and important to increase the surveillance and prevention of monkeypox.” The first of his five suggestions for the general populace was to “avoid skin-to-skin contact with outsiders.”
On Weibo, the suggestion sparked debate. Some praised his advise as sensible, while others expressed relief that they didn’t know many foreigners. Weibo user: “We can’t just allow everything in. It’s wonderful to open the country’s door.”
Some, however, compared Wu’s post to the wave of xenophobia and violence Asians overseas experienced at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak and denounced it as discriminatory and dangerous.
A user on Weibo said, “This is a little like when the pandemic started, when some individuals overseas avoided any Chinese people they saw out of fear.” These two items, in my opinion, lack any scientific support, are overbroad, and will only increase public anxiety.
Others noted that many foreigners who had lived in China for a long time or worked there would not have recently left, making them no more likely to be infected than Chinese nationals.
Another user said on Weibo, “When the pandemic initially started, several of our international friends stepped up and utilized our own platforms to warn everybody, ‘Chinese people are not the virus.'”
Many Chinese folks with their own platforms were utterly silent when the domestic outbreak was brought under control and our overseas friends started to encounter discrimination.
[embedpost slug=”chinas-mainland-confirms-first-imported-case-of-monkeypox”]
