China gave U.S. diplomats anal COVID-19 tests

UPDATE:

The Times UK reports, March 3, 2021, that China has made anal COVID-19 swabs mandatory for all foreign travelers arriving in the country. (New York Post)

The New York Post reports on Feb. 25, 2021 that the Chinese Communist government has used anal swabs to test U.S. diplomats for COVID-19, without Washington’s consent. It is unclear how many diplomats or their family members had been subjected to the procedure.

Anal COVID-19 tests require inserting a swab up to 2 inches into the rectum and rotating several times. A traveler from Australia to China who was tested with anal swabs said the procedure felt like having diarrhea.

A State Department representative told VICE World News that Washington had complained that the invasive procedure was undignified and that “The State Department never agreed to this kind of testing and protested directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when we learned that some staff were subject to it. We have instructed staff to decline this test if it is asked of them, as was done in the past.” 

Beijing first claimed that the anal tests had been given “in error,” and that they had assured Washington that diplomats were exempt from the test, which is required for incoming travelers in some parts of China. 

Then Reuters reported that in a daily new briefing on Feb. 25, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied Beijing had even asked American diplomats to undergo the anal tests: “To my knowledge…China has never required US diplomatic staff stationed in China to conduct anal swab tests.”

But officials in China have used anal swabs to test people it considers at high-risk of contracting the illness, some international travelers and residents of neighborhoods with confirmed cases, according to AFP.

Michelle Pugle reports for Healthline on February 3, 2021 that the Chinese claim the anal swab as a more effective COVID-19 test. Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s  Faculty of Medicine said they found for the first time that people with COVID-19 have active and prolonged gut viral infection, even in the absence of gastrointestinal symptoms and even after the respiratory infection has cleared. That means anal swab testing could detect COVID-19 cases that the standard nose and throat swabs would miss, because viral traces in fecal samples and anal swabs can remain detectable for longer periods than in those from the respiratory tract. 

But experts in the United States question the use of anal swabs to detect the virus, and caution against taking seriously Chinese University of Hong Kong’s  study or anal swab testing.