Other posts claimed that HMPV and Covid-19 had “crossed” for a more serious illness. But several virologists told AFP that the virus comes from different families and impossible to merge.

Adding the wave of disinformation was sensational, “clickbait” headlines in some mainstream media that described HMPV as a “mystery disease” that overwhelmed the Chinese healthcare system.

In reality, it is a known pathogen that has been circulating for decades and generally causes only a mild infection in the upper respiratory tract.

“It is an example of making money from panic in an already confused public on the heels on the Covid-19-Pandemic,” Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago, told AFP.

“The truth is that HMPV is not a mystery disease.”

– ‘fear’ –

Such posts have led to an increase in anti-China comments in Southeast Asia, with a Facebook user who goes so far as to say that Chinese “should not get into the Philippines anymore”.

A TikTok -Video shared an Indian TV news report on the virus but with an overlay message: “China has done it again”.

“Due to the psychological traum provided by Covid-19-and of draconian locking policy-reacting citizens around the world worried about the possibility that another pandemic comes from China,” Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of the China-focused business information Firm Strategy risks, told AFP.

“The correct answer is that distrust what Beijing says about public health, but does not assume that it means that it (Chinese communist) party covers another pandemic, and certainly not to offend Chinese,” he added.

Much of the disinformation on HMPV in early January came from social media accounts with an Indian focus, before spreading to others with audiences in Africa, Indonesia and Japan, Mai said.

In an obvious bid to raise the anti-China feeling, many of them went hmpv falsehoods along with videos of people who eat foods that may seem strange or exotic to outsiders.

Others used scary music and old images to sensationize routine warnings issued by Chinese health authorities.

Many such posts on X reached millions of viewers without a community note, a crowd to debate false information.

“My concern is that all fear of HMPV will now make it more difficult for public health officials to raise the alarm about future pandemics,” Mai said.

BURS AC/DHW/STU/LB

By Tommy Wang with Anuj Chopra in Washington