US: State Department sued for concealing diplomats’ anal swab COVID-19 testing in China

The US State Department has reportedly been sued by an American activist group over concealing US diplomats’ anal swab COVID-19 testing in China. According to a press release, US activist group Judicial Watch said that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State Department for non-identifying records of US diplomatic personnel being subjected to COVID-19 "anal swab" tests by China. The lawsuit comes after it was reported in February that US diplomats were subjected to anal swab testing for COVID-19 by the communist government.

The Judicial Watch said, “Chinese officials who forced US diplomats to undergo an anal swab for COVID-19 testing did so 'in error', the US State Department told The Hill on Thursday, as Beijing denies it conducted the tests at all."

The activist group’s president Tom Fitton added, “Our diplomatic personnel was abused in a reprehensible way by the Chinese and the Biden administration seems to have done little in response-except to cover it up.”

The conservative group has said that it filed the lawsuit because the State Department did not respond to a June 18 FOIA request for the records. The State Department spokesperson, on the other hand, said that Chinese officials mistakenly forced the diplomats to take anal swab tests, while Beijing denied conducting the tests. A spokesperson told the news site that the State Department “never agreed” to the tests and protested to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs after receiving complaints from staff. 

US, Japan complain over anal swab testing 

Meanwhile, according to reports, despite multiple complaints from Washington and Tokyo, China had been adamant over anal swab testing. Back in March, Japan had also asked Beijing to stop anal tests on its citizens. Tokyo even said that it received multiple complaints of psychological distress from the citizens who underwent the “invasive” COVID-19 testing in China. Beijing, on the other hand, has maintained that it has adjusted anti-epidemic measures in a “scientific manner" in accordance with "relevant laws and regulations."

Chinese health experts believe anal swab tests are more accurate than nasal and mouth swabs to detect virus traces. Anal swabs could be more effective because traces of the virus stay in the fecal matter for a longer time than those in the respiratory tract, Dr. Li Tongzeng, a respiratory diseases doctor in Beijing, told Chinese state television. 

(With inputs from ANI)