Cheryl Chumley, the author of "LOCKDOWN: The Socialist Plan to Take Away Your Freedom" and an opinion editor at The Washington Times, told Epoch TV's "China Insider" program.

According to the author, the current government and media reactions in response to monkeypox parallel a pattern of signals that led to COVID lockdowns.

"If you watched as we moved from the coronavirus to the various variants, and now here we are with the media drumming up fear and hysteria about the monkeypox," Chumley said. "It seems to be leading that way. And that's not just me taking a guess. It's some of these health bureaucrats that favored lockdowns, in the beginning [of COVID], 2-plus years ago, who are saying the same [things]."

The threat of lockdowns, Chumley said, goes beyond lockdowns themselves.