China Mandates Anal Swab COVID Tests For All Visitors, Despite “Psychological Pain”

Amid two international relation debacles:

1) US diplomats were forced (China has denied forcing them) to undergo an anal test for COVID-19 in order to enter the country.

2) Tokyo has asked Beijing to stop performing COVID-19 anal swabs on its citizens after complaints that the procedure causes “psychological pain.”

Chinese officials have decided to make the humiliating anal swab tests for the coronavirus mandatory for almost all international arrivals.

China uses anal swabs to test for Covid-19https://t.co/xgXHnzZrIt pic.twitter.com/xnqlKH9uLH

— Mothership.sg (@MothershipSG) January 27, 2021

Chinese health experts claim the anal swab is much more accurate than a nasal cavity or cheek swab and can avoid ‘false negatives’ which has been a trend with the more common tests. Chinese officials have recently identified the anal swab as the #2 (no pun intended) most prominent COVID test in the country. “Chinese citizens are clenching up at an invasive new form of COVID-19 testing in the country: anal swabs,” one international report noted.

It’s yet unclear just how many American diplomats were subject to the “probe”.

As BBC describes, “Anal swabs involve inserting a cotton swab 3-5cm (1.2-2.0 inches) into the anus and gently rotating it.”

A headline you do not read everyday …https://t.co/e5dgS9O2Lw

— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) February 25, 2021

The Times reports that the thoughtful Chinese did offer a possible compromise for those who do not wish to be anally probed as they enter the country. Lu Hongzhou, a Shanghai-based doctor, told China’s state media that the anal swab could be substituted with a stool sample.

As we noted previously, much of China’s draconian response to the coronavirus pandemic, which included at one point welding people inside their own homes, has been praised by western media outlets. How long before Fauci et al. are pushing for anal swabs to flatten the curve, crush the virus, return to normal, etc…