The COVID-19 Pandemic isn’t the Only Outbreak We Need to Face
By Vanessa Blas
T
he first case of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and has spread to 185 countries in just three months.1,2 However, the virus is not the only outbreak that is spreading rapidly–the pandemic has become racialized, targeting millions of Asians and Asian Americans. COVID-19 is not the first instance in which a disease has been linked to one’s race or identity. At the beginning of the 1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, many people believed only Haitians and people in the LGBTQ+ community could acquire AIDS, initially referred to as GRID, or gay-related immunodeficiency.3-5 In Washington State, some Americans refused to shake the hands of all Africans during the peak of the 2014 Ebola epidemic, although the outbreak was centered in West Africa, specifically Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.6 Furthermore, North America has a long and dark history of associating Asians and Asian Americans with disease. In 1900, the San Francisco Board of Health decided to quarantine and prevent Asian residents from leaving the Chinatown neighborhood in fear that they would spread a plague due to their “exotic” and “dirty” eating and
“
Wikimedia Commons hygienic practices.7 In 2003, Asians became the scapegoats of the SARS virus, which caused Asian-owned businesses in Toronto to lose about 80% of their income.5,8 With the rise of the coronavirus, this racism has resurfaced and infected the households and businesses of Asians across the globe. The media and government are to blame for this grievous repeat of history. When the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Manhattan, The New York Post perpetuated the racist “Asians-cause-disease” stereotype by using a picture of an Asian man wearing a mask to catch the attention of the public.9 President Trump has begun calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” instead of its scientific name, COVID-19.10,11 The White House has supported him using this term, which he claims is not racist, despite the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) assertion that the virus should be referred to as COVID-19 since it has no nationality.12–14 WHO has emphasized that the virus is not bound to one group or identity,14 asserting that calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” is incorrect and xenophobic, and President Trump’s use of the label condones Anti-Chinese sentiment in America. Popular
With the rise of coronavirus, anti-Asian racism has resurfaced and infected the households and businesses of Asians across the globe. And the media and government are to blame.
51
”
newspapers and media outlets should immediately rebuke the President’s language to mitigate the damage he has caused. An article from The New York Times simply reported Trump’s defense of the label instead of focusing on how the action is highly xenophobic. The negative effects of his actions have already appeared. Shortly after President Trump began calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” CBS News correspondent and Chinese American Weijia Jiang tweeted that while conversing with a White House official, they had referred to the virus as the “KungFlu.”13 In a recent interview, Texas senator John Cornyn claimed that Chinese culture and dietary habits are the source of the coronavirus and similar diseases.16 Fox News TV anchor Tucker Carlson only refers to the virus as the “Chinese Virus,” and the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the term “Wuhan virus” when describing the pandemic.13 This prejudice is present not only at the government and media level but in numerous communities across the country. Cities and towns with large East Asian communities face the biggest blow. In New York City, an Asian woman wearing a face mask–which is a common and healthy norm many East Asians practice during the annual flu season–was assaulted by a man, who called her a “diseased b****.”17 A Los Angeles man in the subway yelled at a Thai American passenger for being a “filthy Chinese,” and claimed that Chinese people cause all diseases.17 Two hotels in Indiana refused to accept two Asian citizens as guests because
YALE GLOBAL HEALTH REVIEW
