Chinese Media And Influencers Blame US For Spread Of Monkeypox

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
(https://bit.ly/3GHVH6C) 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.
Crates holding live monkeys are scattered across the westbound lanes
of state Route 54 at the junction with Interstate 80 near
Danville, Pa., on Jan. 21, 2022, after a pickup pulling a trailer
carrying the monkeys was hit by a dump truck
(https://bit.ly/38DhGPt).
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 (https://reut.rs/3NfEPXm)
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.
Head of the Institute of Microbiology of the German Armed Forces
Roman Woelfel works in his laboratory in Munich, on May 20,
2022, after Germany has detected its first case of monkeypox.
(Christine Uyanik/Reuters)
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 (https://bit.ly/3GElGf4) that caused
COVID-19. It added that no viral evolution in nature would have
such a fast mutation rate.
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.

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