The fear-mongering must go: How the coronavirus has sparked racially-motivated scare campaigns
Written by: Morgana Adby
The Virus
The Coronavirus has dominated the news cycle this past week as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency. Three Canadians have been infected, so the outbreak is minimal here. However, with over 7000 cases in China, and 213 tragic deaths, the international community is attentive. Meanwhile, the medical community is mobilizing to contain the outbreak and many civilians are feeling anxious.
Do not panic; it is not encouraged by any medical organization, and there are direct consequences to being overly fearful.
The concerns of the public are doubled because there is no treatment. Doctors can provide supportive care, such as relieving a fever. However, there is no cure or vaccine. In many ways, the illness can be compared to the common cold- with more severe consequences. Ultimately, the majority of those who have died will have developed pneumonia, as that is the greatest risk to those who catch the virus.
The best way for individuals to protect themselves is the same way they would every flu season. Wash your hands, limit exposure, and try to support your immune system.
Information on risk management communicated by U.S. General Practitioner, Mikhail “Dr. Mike” Varshavski, can be found here.
China’s Containment Efforts
The entire province of Hubei is in lockdown, with the city of Wuhan, in particular, having strict regulations on travel. Although it is uncertain if there will be another outbreak in China or another nation, WHO has thanked China for its drastic efforts to minimize the spread of the virus.
One major concern is getting food and supplies to the region. Due to the isolated status of Wuhan, it may become difficult to get food to consumers. It is unclear how long the travel regulations will last.
Soon after the quarantine was announced, many began to stockpile food. There are reports of shelves being restocked in the morning but depleted quickly as people scramble to buy extra.
Another major hurdle is that medical staff are under strain. China has built two more hospitals and sent over a thousand medical personnel to support the local doctors of Wuhan. Yet, the medical staff remain overwhelmed and under-supplied.
Canada, along with other countries such as the US and the UK has done soft reinforcement of the travel ban by putting out travel notices not to enter China.
Meanwhile, the priority of WHO is to contain the spread of the virus, hence the emergency declaration. Although China has been coping with the economic and pragmatic challenges of the outbreak, not all nations have the systems in place to do so.
“The main reason is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries,” said Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the WHO. “Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to other countries with weaker health systems, which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”
China can be scrutinized for a great many things, but it is undeniable that the transparency and speed of handling this outbreak is a drastic improvement from the Sars epidemic of the early 2000s.
Paranoia Is Not Useful, But Washing Your Hands Is
Nobody would recommend panicking, regardless of the risk to Canadians because it is counterproductive. However, if there was ever a time to specifically not panic, this is it. Across the globe, people are letting their fears of a virus, change how they look at Asian people.
Many citizens may feel like the facts are telling them to panic, for a few reasons. Firstly, there has been prolonged media coverage of the outbreak. The reason every outlet is covering this story is that it impacted many lives, it will have a ripple effect on other matters such as the global economy and so people are informed to take reasonable precautionary measures.
In the 24-hour news cycle where things come and go, it is rare to see consistent coverage of something every day. Outbreaks of disease are frightening because people feel powerless, and being reminded of it every day can be uncomfortable.
The second reason people may be overly anxious is that misleading information is all over the internet. Although it is true that China’s food regulations are vulnerable to disease, there is a bizarre blame game happening. Rumours, such as a woman eating bat soup, supposedly causing the outbreak. The video in question is of Wang Mengyun, taken three years ago in Palau on her international travel internet show; nothing to do with the Coronavirus. Yet, she apologized anyway because viewers were upset that she did something that “reckless”, in the context that the 2019 outbreak might have originated from a bat.
This example perfectly demonstrates the trendy thing to do in times of panic: identify similarities around the outbreak and blame anyone that has those perceived or real similarities. Which is exactly the problem.
Effective disease control does not come from racial bias. Effective disease control is done by minimizing the spread of the disease itself, in ways that medical professionals recommend.
Even though Wang Mengyun ate food outside of China because she is Chinese some morally condemned her, and not anyone local to Palau. This is not sound logic, but racialization allows one to associate intrinsic traits with a group of people. For Chinese people, being perceived as fundamentally dirty is a stereotype that goes back for generations.
Callbacks to the “Yellow Peril,” can be found in a French Newspaper, and although they apologized it speaks to the reality that it is many people’s first instinct to accuse Chinese people of being inherently dangerous. This is evidently false. On social media, Chinese French civilians are posting #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus.
Across the globe, Chinese people who are not infected are being denied service, treated differently, and many news organizations are encouraging it, intentionally or not. The Daily Telegraph featured a front-page title “CHINA KIDS STAY HOME”, although there is no reason to think that would be effective infection control. It also ties the identity of schoolchildren to a virus.
These sentiments also exist in Canada. For example, Peter Akman, a CTV journalist made a joke on twitter about “getting something” besides a haircut from his Asian barber. He appears to no longer be on the CTV team and has since apologized. Still, critics pointed out that if mainstream journalists are having these biases, it is only natural that the public will be affected by those biases.
Meanwhile, medical professionals are trying to curb these ideas. Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam posted "I am concerned about the growing number of reports of racism and stigmatizing comments on social media directed to people of Chinese and Asian descent related to 2019-nCoV coronavirus,".
Remember: the best form of infection control is washing your hands, not perpetuating faulty stereotypes.
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