Anal COVID-19 swabs — why is China doing them? After independent complaints out of the United States and from Japanese officials, China's CDC has confirmed that at some airports passengers are being tested for COVID-19 through the use of anal swabs. These probes are also being used on local populations. On March 3 a foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters that the decision to use these "virus prevention and control measures" was based on science. DW spoke with Wendy Szymczak, who researched the utility of stool PCR for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA and implemented diagnostic testing for COVID-19 at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.