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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.