Chinese Media And Influencers Blame US For Spread Of Monkeypox

Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

With the outbreak of monkeypox, Chinese state media and social media influencers in China have claimed that the monkeypox virus originated in a U.S. laboratory. They have also made claims that monkeypox will cause the next pandemic, despite European and American scientists pointing out that the possibility of a pandemic is extremely small due to the close contact needed to transmit the virus.

They have also said that, at present, patients are infected with a natural monkeypox virus with no links to a laboratory.

“Jimu News,” a subsidiary of state-run Hubei Daily Group, published an article on May 23 implying that escaped monkeys from a truck involved in a traffic accident on Jan. 21 in Pennsylvania have something to do with the recent monkeypox outbreak in the United States and Europe.

The four monkeys that escaped, among the 100 being transported by the truck, were recaptured next day.

The first confirmed case of monkeypox in the United States appeared in Massachusetts on May 18. The patient was diagnosed after returning to the United States from Canada. Cases have since appeared in New York City, Florida, and Utah.

Meanwhile, Chinese social media influencers who are supportive of China’s ruling communist regime have echoed claims similar to those made by official state media outlets.

On May 20, a blogger named “Guyan Muchan” posted a few screenshots on Chinese social media Weibo of a document claiming that to be a “monkeypox biochemical pandemic plan leaked by the United States,” implying that the U.S. government was aware of the outbreak in advance.

“Guyan Muchan” has 6.41 million followers on Weibo, and the post has been liked by more than 7,500 users and received more than 660 comments. Influenced by this post, someone even commented that the United States is “evil beyond human imagination.”

The document was actually from a hypothetical biohazard scenario published in a research report by the U.S. think tank Nuclear Threat Initiative in 2021. The document is available for viewing on its website.

Major international media, such as Reuters and Bloomberg, further pointed out that: “Pandemic preparedness scenarios and symposiums are not proof that pandemics are planned, nor are these scenarios a new occurrence.”

After the false claim is debunked, “Guyan Muchan” has continued to spread similar claims blaming the U.S. for the spread of the monkeypox.

A self-proclaimed “patriotic” cartoonist “Sweet Potato Bear Lao Liu” also posted claims that the spread of the monkeypox virus was related to a U.S. laboratory. On May 21, he posted on his Weibo account that the United States may have modified and upgraded the monkeypox virus to develop a more virulent and transmissible variant, to lead to the next pandemic.

Zhao Shengye, an internet technology blogger, further claimed on his Weibo account that, after researching the monkeypox virus that appeared in Europe and the United States, he believes the probability of the monkeypox being produced in a laboratory through virus gain-of-function research was greater than 99.9 percent. Zhao has 4 million Weibo followers.

A major mainland Chinese news portal NetEase News published an article on May 23, titled “Is the Monkeypox Virus Man-made? The United States wrote the data on the outbreak of monkeypox last year, which is terrible.” The article claims that monkeypox has more than 50 mutations, which exceeds the mutation rate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus that caused COVID-19. It added that no viral evolution in nature would have such a fast mutation rate.

Such claims have been refuted by international scientists.

David Robertson, head of viral genomics and bioinformatics at the University of Glasgow, told the Newsweek that the claims are baseless as “there’s no evidence for monkeypox being generated in a lab.”

Richard Ebright, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, echoed the point, “All indications are that the monkeypox outbreak involves a natural monkeypox virus.”

Daniel Bausch, an infectious disease expert and president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, told Axios that the risk of a monkeypox pandemic is extremely low.

“I don’t think there’s a reason for panic, I don’t think we’re going to have tens of thousands of cases,” he said of the virus.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, monkeypox is not known to spread easily between people, requiring direct contact with bodily fluids, lesion fluids, or prolonged face-to-face contact.

Li Linqing contributed to the report.