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Months-long lockdowns. Entire city populations herded through the streets for mandatory testing. The people of China could be forgiven for thinking they had seen it all during the coronavirus pandemic.
But now they face a new indignity: the addition of anal swabs — yes, you read that right — to the testing regimen for those in quarantine.
Chinese state media outlets introduced the new protocol in recent days, prompting widespread discussion and some outrage. Some Chinese doctors say the science is there. Recovering patients, they say, have continued to test positive through samples from the lower digestive tract days after nasal and throat swabs came back negative.
Yet for many, it seemed a step too far in government intrusions after a year and counting of a dignity-eroding pandemic.
"Everyone involved will be so embarrassed," one user in Guangdong province said Wednesday on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. In a Weibo poll, 80 percent of respondents said they "could not accept" the invasive method.
[...] The new protocol comes just over a year after the virus began spreading rapidly in the country. Chinese officials are worried about the approach of Lunar New Year next month, often called the world's largest annual migration. Some 3 billion trips are made over the holiday during a non-pandemic year, which means even a single silent coronavirus case could rapidly leapfrog across the nation.
Journal Reference:
Mei Sun, Dong Guo, Jing Zhang, et al. Anal swab as a potentially optimal specimen for SARS-CoV-2 detection to evaluate hospital discharge of COVID-19 patients [open], Future Microbiology (DOI: 10.2217/fmb-2020-0090)
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday January 28 2021, @10:42PM (7 children)
Given the behavior of China's government towards its citizens, I would think they would hardly notice. Oh, this is what the government is doing to us today? Okay. I guess it's not as bad as some other things they do.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:20PM (1 child)
"Drop your pants to earn a social credit point"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:21PM
*to not lose a social credit point
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:42PM (1 child)
And some portion of the population is even ok with it [youtu.be].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @03:16AM
Wear a mask! [babylonbee.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:47PM (2 children)
It's just turning the metaphorical reaming the Chinese government gives its people into a physical reaming.
At least it's a swab and not a 25 cm dildo.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @12:24AM
Disappointing.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @12:33PM
The virus also spreads via fecal particles found in flatulence. This is why buttplugs are required in addition to masks to stop transmission. People are too selfish to wear them however and would rather hundreds of thousands of people die.
(Score: 4, Funny) by MostCynical on Thursday January 28 2021, @10:48PM (15 children)
one story claimed the procedure only takes 10 seconds..
which is either very fast, or means they spend quite a while moving it about in there..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:40PM
Via the anus, you have to go really deep to reach the sinuses.
They probably work fast because they worry that somebody might vomit as the swab goes up the back of the throat and nose. That's a ticklish spot, plus the swap has been though all sorts of smelly shit before it gets there. It's got to be a real shock when they go all that distance in just 10 seconds.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:52PM (13 children)
actually "ouch" is the nose procedure.
There is an antigen procedure where they take your blood. Then there's the stick up your nose one - they shove it deep, they shove it far, it hurts, and they let it sit there to absorb the moist stuff. You can numb the pain of this second test if you do a line first, but you can put that in your ass too on a finger, so no difference. The issue with the test is you don't get a lot of virus.
After they get the sample, they dump it in a bath of food-chemicals which makes the covid RNA replicate hundreds of millions of times. Then they get a sample big enough for testing. If you get a large initial sample, the test is ready in hours - if you get a small one, they need to grow it in a test tube for days to get you the results. The problem is, RNA fragments are fragile (the reason the mRNA vaccines need to be stored super-cold and get destroyed in the body in a day). So if you don't have a lot of covid in you yet, possibly because you just got it, the test may come out negative. The more you get in the initial sample, the faster you get your results, and the more accurate those results are.
It appears they're able to get a larger initial sample from the ass. Simply because the nose hole fits a finger, while the ass hole fits something dick-sized, so they can put a really big cotton ball up there.
Here's the funny thing - why is anyone complaining? Women have no issue with something dick-sized in the ass, and men get a camera shoved up there to test for cancer. Ah, you say, but the cancer test is a choice, and they're trying to make the covid ass-test mandatory. I agree with that, but you get those from police and airport security when they check for drugs.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday January 29 2021, @12:51AM (8 children)
I agree with that, but you get those from police and airport security when they check for drugs.
There's a couple of really big differences here between anal drug tests in the US and anal Covid tests in China:
1) Americans love their War on Drugs and are willing to suffer just about any injustice or indignity in support of this War. So, no-knock warrants that result in people in the wrong house being brutalized or shot dead, that's OK. Pulling people over for minor traffic infractions and then destroying their car to look for drugs, and possibly shooting them in the back because they were reaching for--their wallet, that's OK. Armed cops in schools to brutalize kids because they might have drugs on them, that's OK. For-profit private prisons where people get sent for decades for non-violent drug offenses, that's OK.
2) Those actions listed above in support of the War on Drugs only happen to "those people" (i.e., black and brown people), and that's OK. If it happens to a white person, they must have deserved it after all.
But asking people to wear a mask to prevent the spread of Covid, that's an infringement of their Freedumz! And so is getting an anal test for this disease that's killed 400,000 Americans and counting. We can't possibly stand for this injustice!
(Score: 1, Informative) by fakefuck39 on Friday January 29 2021, @01:13AM (6 children)
>Americans love their War on Drugs
you've never been to china... to give you an idea - you know how you get thrown in jail a few years for having a bag of heroin on you? it's punishable by death in china.
and no, the american people do not support no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, or being shot. the other stuff you speak of seems to be from some hipster blm handbook with talking points. when you're detained for a violent crime, and the police have a gun on you and tell to put your hands up and freeze, you do not get shot for reaching for your wallet. you get shot because you did not comply. because the cop doesn't need to decide if you're reaching for wallet vs gun. you need to put your hands up.
and yes, when you are suspected of robbery with a gun, and the police tell you to freeze and put your hands up, and you start to run away instead, they should shoot you in the back. to prevent you shooting someone. and if you want to prove you're not the suspect, you put your hands up, freeze, and let the cop take your wallet from your pocket.
the war on drugs is not ok, most people don't support it. but then you go and mix in bullshit with that, making your whole point false.
cops kill more white people than blacks. blacks kill the most blacks. 7.5 times more murders per capita than whites. you think maybe a population statistically likely to murder more, gets incarcerated more? wow, what a surprise.
asking a person to wear a mask is fine. enforcing it with fines and violence if they don't comply is not fine. but this goes for clothes too - the government is indeed overstepping its authority for arresting you if you're walking naked in public. yes, the government overstepping its authority is an infringement of freedom. A law saying I have to use pink toilet paper would be also. So would a law saying I have to look up at the sky once per day. The triviality or ease of doing something does not mean someone has the right to force me to do it, no matter how beneficial it is. And I say this as someone who wears an n95 everywhere I go.
What you have with masks is people protesting against a government grab for authority it doesn't have, not against wearing masks. But it's cute that you sound like a 14yo edgy kid from /r/politics. You're so cool and fresh!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday January 29 2021, @06:22AM (5 children)
when you're detained for a violent crime, and the police have a gun on you and tell to put your hands up and freeze, you do not get shot for reaching for your wallet. you get shot because you did not comply. because the cop doesn't need to decide if you're reaching for wallet vs gun. you need to put your hands up.
Wrong. Philando Castile [wikipedia.org] was shot for reaching for his wallet.
the war on drugs is not ok, most people don't support it
Most people do support it, at least implicitly, or else it would be a big enough political issue that it would get fixed.
But it's cute that you sound like a 14yo edgy kid from /r/politics. You're so cool and fresh!
And you sound like a total asshole. Your posts here are so full of bile, you really should get some counseling.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by fakefuck39 on Friday January 29 2021, @06:56AM (4 children)
Castille was told not to reach for his firearm, immediately proceeded to reach for his wallet, and was shot. At least read your own damn link.
ah, so most people don't support it, so you say 'implicitly by electing lawmakers' guess most supported trump too in 2016, since he won? nice strawman.
and guess what. the drug laws are slowly getting removed and people let out of jail. because people vote for lawmakers that fix them. so there goes even you stretched strawman of an argument.
i sound like an asshole because i am an asshole to you. an idiot spreadng misinformation and false narrative to keep your anger flowning. because let's face it -if you don't have this quest in your life, you literally have nothing else. because you're stupd, and you're a loser.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @11:42AM (3 children)
"because people vote for lawmakers that fix them."
We should also insist on having better voter integrity laws than what we currently have. Otherwise it may not even matter who we would like to vote for.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Friday January 29 2021, @06:42PM (2 children)
i agree with this, but even if we fix the districts and nuke the ec, it doesn't fix it. many times people do vote to support bad things. hell, we put japansese americans in camps. just that the war on drugs and corrupt cops aren't examples of that. and many bad things caused by voters are because of blatant misinformation and lies. like the post i replied to. the guy complaining about the problem -literally the cause of the problem. and too stupid to know it. he also doesn't really care about the problem -it's just a quest he picked to fill a hole in his life. because he's a loser.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday January 30 2021, @12:20AM (1 child)
Why don't you tell me your home address, and we can talk about how much of a loser I am in person.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Saturday January 30 2021, @12:34AM
Yep. In addition to not having the social skills and conversational experience to understand a basic joke, you are also a keyboard warrior and /r/iamverybadass. How about instead of posting my address on the internet, I just laugh at you some more, you absolute social reject loser?
(Score: 3, Funny) by stretch611 on Friday January 29 2021, @03:23AM
Well, tbh, If I were you, I surely wouldn't expect to sit for that one.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @12:13PM
You make a good point. Anyone travelling to the US via airplane must be either prepared for a prod up the ass or will get a shock when it happens but ether way knows it is coming. Same difference, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @01:01PM
Fecal plumes are the primary route of transmission. The virus reproduce in the epithelium of the intestine.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday January 29 2021, @10:16PM (1 child)
Nope... Contrary to what's depicted in porn, statistically speaking, about 2/3rds of sexually active women don't have anal sex (as it's either painful or too distasteful), and most of the ones that do are young adults.
Men get a finger up there to check the prostate; both men and women have colonoscopies to check for cancer or polyps every few years.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Friday January 29 2021, @10:55PM
going on the fact that you replied with statistics and facts to an obvious joke, I'm gonna go on a limb and say you have zero experience with anal or any other kind of sex, but you do have a lot of experience with your finger up your ass. if you find anal sex distasteful, you probably shouldn't put the dick in your mouth afterwards. give that a try.
now, statistically speaking, pretty much every normal woman has had anal sex at some point, and the only way it hurts is if some social reject virgin like yourself does that. with a hooker in your case.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday January 28 2021, @10:59PM (8 children)
All Chinese people walk funny with their hands on their ass...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:35PM (7 children)
These are people who piss and shit in the middle of crowded sidewalks and malls. Even the lowliest canines at least look for a fire hydrant of a patch of grass. Chinks are not only sub-human, they're sub-canine. People don't call them "insectoids" for nuthin'.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Friday January 29 2021, @12:37AM (4 children)
Jesus, someone modded that funny?
There are some weirdos on this site.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 29 2021, @12:52AM (3 children)
Probably because a "-1, Sad Truth" mod doesn't exist.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @06:38AM (2 children)
Eth has a record. If you know his real name, publicly available on the San Diego Court Proceedings. Public defection. Public urination. Public indecent exposure. Public being a dick. It's all there. That is our Ethanol_fueled. Mod him down if you have spare points, please. For the sake of humanity.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 29 2021, @01:18PM (1 child)
If you know it, drop it. I'd love to see this guy's rap sheet.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday January 29 2021, @05:10PM
Might I suggest a prophylactic dose of Maalox, Kaopectate or Pepto-Bismol before you put eyes to paper?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by DannyB on Friday January 29 2021, @03:04PM (1 child)
Shirley you are not talking about China, but rather are talking about San Francisco.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday January 29 2021, @11:21PM
Oddly enough, I spent about six hours playing tourist in SF last summer, and didn't see any of that going on, perhaps because a huge percentage of the homeless people were indoors where they could use toilets.
The problem on SF's streets & sidewalks is directly linked to the lack of functioning public bathrooms, and cropped up after they shut down the old public bathrooms maybe a decade or two ago. The city did add about 125 high-tech self-cleaning toilets scattered around the city several years ago, but they're often broken, and a handful of staffed "pit stops" in the worst areas, but a potentially-broken toilet every square half-mile isn't enough.
(Score: 4, Informative) by looorg on Thursday January 28 2021, @10:59PM
It's not like they are suggesting every one gets a public anal probing in front of an audience, or? It's a medical procedure. I doubt it will be more embarrassing then having your temperature taken rectally, which is if I recall correctly considered to be the most accurate way to do it.
They could probably just give each patient a little plastic tube and some plastic sticks and a simple instruction paper of how to do the procedure in the privacy of their own home. They do it for a lot of intestinal diseases where they test the stool for various markers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:23PM
Testing rates skyrocket in San Francisco.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:24PM (3 children)
All the Chinese government has to do to elicit compliance is to threaten to lower the social credit [wikipedia.org] score of the citizens who don't comply. Give someone a choice between having their rectum invaded once and their life ruined forever, and they'll quickly find the courage to drop their pants.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday January 29 2021, @12:57AM (2 children)
Maybe the US could elicit compliance by requiring regular testing to get stimulus checks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @01:12AM
Stimulus? Anal swabs and stimulus. Uh-huh . . .
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Friday January 29 2021, @03:39AM
All they need to do is release an easy 4-step smartphone app.
1) Insert phone
2) Wait for the beep
3) Remove phone
4) Results automatically posted to your social media
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @11:26PM
Yuck, but so hot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @12:51AM
I predicted rectal thermometers using vibrations for signalising and that everyone in the rotten west except conspiracy theorist will be happy. I suppose it will happen this year.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday January 29 2021, @12:54AM (1 child)
Of all the countries in the entire world, only one country's economy actually grew in 2020, and that's China. I guess this just shows why: scientists come up with a better test to help track the virus and isolate people with it, and the government pushes it, regardless of people not liking the idea of having a cotton swab stuck up their ass (even though it's probably less painful than the nose-swab test). But in America, this test will go nowhere. People here would rather catch the disease and have their family members die of it than bear the slightest inconvenience, such as wearing a mask in public.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday January 29 2021, @07:34AM
It is all about how you sell it.
This anal swab has what plants crave! All the jocks do it, look how cool they are! Hi ho kids, it's Kermit the Frog here, having a hand up your ass is so much fun, just look at me! Deadly shootings, chemical spill, and weather warnings but first we will all swab our rectums on live TV! [annoying singing] Swabity Swabity Swabity!
Ah, just make it require a stupid smart phone and consumertards will be lining up to have them shoved in their asses.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Username on Friday January 29 2021, @12:57AM (1 child)
Logical continuation of covid19 response. Cannot wait for Biden to obey his chinese overlords, and make us bend over for them.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday January 29 2021, @01:43AM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 29 2021, @01:14AM (1 child)
We've been hearing stories of aliens and anal probes for decades. Now we know where the aliens decided to settle. They've invaded the CCP and taken it over!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @02:17AM
We don't need any more anal swabbies, one is more than enough.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @01:19AM
Here's some more information [goatse.cx] about how the anal swab test works.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 29 2021, @01:41AM (2 children)
As you get older, you see these kinds of things more and more. For older men, there's that thrilling prostate check. Women get to experience the pap smear, and several other checks that involve probes of intimate places. For all, it's plenty humiliating and degrading to have to move into a nursing home, because you have become too feeble to use a toilet without assistance. Can't sit down or stand up without help. Can't even wipe yourself. Compared to that, an anal swab is nothing.
Then there's the stuff we do to cows. Again, a mere anal swab is real mild in comparison. I'm talking about artificial insemination. The control we exert over cows' lives is incredible. Milk them, put them on whatever diet we wish, slaughter and eat them, turn their hides into leather, breed them, or castrate them, cut their horns off, all as we desire. I also have a few tales from the farm about this.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @03:10AM
It's basically Cowshwitz.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday January 29 2021, @03:37AM
Now that I am that age... I am very grateful that you can now scrape your poop into a box instead of having a colonoscopy.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @01:57AM
Sewage is monitored in some areas of the US to detect COVID hotspots. It seems logical that an anal test should work, given that feces from infected people do contain SARS-CoV-2.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @03:41AM
It sounds like they want to sell it or get diplomatic points rather than inoculate their own population
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55212787 [bbc.com]
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by stretch611 on Friday January 29 2021, @03:43AM (1 child)
This type of testing was DJ Trump's idea all along. (But, he can't claim it; something about his twiiter account not working.)
He wanted to call it something similar to Warpspeed.. Like Project Enterprise... Goes to uranus and fights the klingons.
It was meant to silence all his critics that complained about a lack of available testing.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @06:19AM
If only someone would add "i" to the middle of uranus, we could all start pronouncing it the same as someone with a cockney accent says "your highness".
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Friday January 29 2021, @11:16AM
1) Nasal swabbing come with a risk of brain damage and/or brain infection. Proper technique requires that the swab is not pressed up against the roof of nasal cavity. Unfortunately, the swabbers are only human and you can't guarantee that they will use correct technique on everybody. Few people have their brains in their arses, even though their behaviour might lead you to think so.
Firstpost: COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swab: Correct sampling technique is important to prevent injuries and complications [firstpost.com]
2) As pointed out, positive PCR tests can be obtained from anal swabs after nasal swabs show negative. The oro-fecal route of infection is well known in other diseases (which is why hand-washing, food-hygiene, and not touching the area around your nose and mouth is so important). There is some debate over whether viable viruses are shed via the digestive system, but the PCR tests are detecting RNA with the same signature as viable viruses, so it makes sense to regard people showing positive test results from anal swabs as being potentially infective and dealing with them commensurately.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday January 29 2021, @05:19PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmUVo0xVAqE [youtube.com]
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @07:38PM
if you don't joyfully agree to be anally swabbed it's because you're racist.