After first case of monkeypox in the country, Chinese doctor advises: “Don't touch foreigners”

A man cuts his hair on the street amid the Covid lockdown- underway in Shanghai, China, from May of 2022. A new concern in the country is monkeypox.| Photo: EFE

An epidemiologist recommended that the population “don’t touch foreigners” after the first case of monkeypox was detected in China last Friday ()). The person who was diagnosed with the virus had traveled from abroad to the southern city of Chongqing.

The recommendation was made by Wu Zunyou, head of epidemiology at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the publication was made in the institution’s official account on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, censored in the country). Avoiding contact with foreigners was one of Zunyou’s five tips to avoid the transmission of the disease.

The expert also advised to avoid the same type of contact with “people who have been abroad” recently, as well as with “strangers”. Thousands of Chinese netizens derided Wu’s suggestions, saying they considered them “racist and discriminatory”, he said on Monday (10) the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong.

Part of the criticism was also directed at the fact that Covid-17 have often been related to China, while Chinese spoke of xenophobia, and that now, with monkeypox , their prejudice against foreigners.