Hong Kong has experienced a deluge of disinformation about the human metapneumovirus (HMPV), stirring up anti-China sentiment across Asia.

Hong Kong has experienced a deluge of disinformation about the human metapneumovirus (HMPV), stirring up anti-China sentiment across Asia.

This is concerning, considering that experts have dismissed comparisons between HMPV and the coronavirus pandemic five years ago. As a result, the public's response to future pandemics could be compromised.

Agence France-Presse has fact-checked social media posts about HMPV after cases rose in China. This includes debunking posts claiming people were dying and that national emergencies had been declared. These falsehoods and fearmongering could jeopardize the public response to a future pandemic.

Philip Mai, the co-director of the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, told AFP that the authors of some of these posts were trying to scare people. There was an uptick in anti-Chinese rhetoric. People unfairly blamed HMPV cases on an entire community or culture. One video showed a confrontation between Chinese citizens and police in medical suits, claiming China had begun isolating its population.

Posts claimed that HMPV and Covid-19 could merge into a more severe disease. But multiple virologists told AFP that the viruses are from different families and impossible to merge.

Adds to the wave of disinformation were sensational, clickbait headlines in some mainstream media outlets that described HMPV as a mystery illness overpowering the Chinese healthcare system. In reality, it is a known pathogen that has circulated for decades and generally causes only mild infection of the upper respiratory tract.

Such posts have led to a surge in anti-China commentary across Southeast Asia. One Facebook user said that Chinese people shouldn't be allowed to enter the Philippines anymore.

The right response is to distrust what Beijing says about public health, but not assume it means the [Chinese Communist] Party is covering up another pandemic.

Much of the disinformation about HMPV in early January came from social media accounts with an Indian focus. In an apparent bid to ramp-up the anti-China sentiment, many of them peddled HMPV falsehoods alongside videos of people eating food that may seem strange or exotic to outsiders. Others used spooky music and old images to sensationalize routine cautions issued by Chinese health authorities.

Many such posts on X reached millions of viewers without a Community Note, a crowdsourced tool to debunk false information.

My concern is that all the fearmongering about HMPV now will make it harder for public health officials to raise the alarm about future pandemics.

Edward Lance Arellano Lorilla

CEO / Co-Founder

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