Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on the 19th (local time) that a Chinese infectious disease authority has warned against "skin contact with foreigners" to prevent monkeypox.
On the 17th, the day after the first case of monkeypox infection was reported in China, Zunyu Wu, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on Weibo, a Chinese social media site, "To prevent the possibility of monkeypox infection and for our healthy daily life 1. Foreigners and skin Avoid contact 2. Avoid skin contact with someone who has returned from overseas in the last 3 weeks."
He also advised avoiding skin contact with strangers and using disposable toilet covers when using the bathroom in public places, including hotels.
Chinese netizens then mocked him, criticizing his warning as racist and vague, the SCMP reported.
In a report by the Chinese state-run Global Times, which introduced Wu Zunyu's recommendations, a netizen who is believed to be a foreigner on Weibo said, "How racist is this?" "I lived in China for almost 10 years, and I lost my family for three or four years due to border control. What about people like me that I haven't met?" he protested.
Another netizen said, "This is a very inappropriate remark. There are still many foreign friends working in China. In the early days of Corona 19, some foreign friends protested to everyone on social media, saying, 'Chinese is not a virus'. We must not remain silent when faced with discrimination in
"Is he referring to sexual intercourse or mere skin contact? I think he meant the former," he said.
On the 16th, China's Chongqing Quarantine Authority announced that a resident who had recently entered from overseas and was in quarantine for the prevention of COVID-19 showed symptoms such as a rash and was tested for monkey pox.
Earlier, a 30-year-old resident who had traveled from Hong Kong to Canada, the United States, and the Philippines on the 6th was confirmed to be infected with monkey pox, but this is the first case in mainland China.
Chongqing quarantine authorities said the risk of transmission is low because the confirmed person was quarantined as soon as they arrived in Chongqing.
In a controversial article on the prevention of monkey pox, Wu Zunyu argued that the possibility that monkey pox would not be filtered out by China's strict entry quarantine system, other than the case of imported cases from Chongqing, was very low and basically negligible.