An article by Melanie Vestergaard
The China Virus, the Chinese Flu, the Kung Flu – the Coronavirus, or Covid-19, has come to be known by many names, most referring to its origins; China. Even within China it is referred to as the Wuhan virus, and in Hong Kong the Mainland virus (Xu, 2020) and it becomes clear that we need causation, a reason for everything, especially something bad and when there is lack of reason, we need a villain to blame. Sadly, the title of the villain in this case, and in the case of many similar unexplainable scenarios, befalls the victim who in turn is stigmatised on the basis of diagnosis with race or class often becoming the common denominator (Brewis et al., 2020).
Despite no one being immune or out of reach of this disease, it has highlighted certain societal inequalities as evidenced by the disproportionately affected groups, namely migrants and people of colour which are “over-represented in lower socioeconomic groups, have limited health-care access, or work in precarious jobs'' (Devakumar et al., 2020: 1194). These societal inequalities and responses to disease are not new phenomena as historically the views on disease control and epidemics have been Eurocentric and fuelled by xenophobic stigmatisations of ‘the Other’.
In the 19th Century when colonial trade, especially from Asia, was crucial, particularly Chinese and Muslim Indian tradesmen were heavily scrutinised and discriminated against by Europeans in the name of health control in line with recommendations by the International Sanitary Conventions (now responsibility of the World Health Organisation) (White, 2020). As explained by White, the early responses to epidemics and infectious diseases have been developed with Europe at the centre and former colonies at the periphery which means the way in which we respond to disease today is still with a Eurocentric (and US-centric) mindset resulting in an inevitable bias especially towards Asia (2020).
In relation to Euro-centricism and the representation of disease in the media, Pieri (2018) notes how media coverage of epidemics only really becomes significant in Western media when they are considered a threat to those residing there, and reviewing the experience of Chinese diaspora in the UK. Furthermore, Gao and Sai (2020) highlight the curious racialisation which seems to only occur when the disease originates from outside Euro-America like SARS which originated in China and Ebola which started in Africa versus swine flu (H1N1) which stemmed from the US and mad cow disease which originally spread from the UK.
In support of this, Brewis et al. (2020) explain how stigma built around a disease directly corresponds to the reporting of those affected. Much like how HIV/AIDS was originally thought to mainly affect African, or black people in general and gay men, resulting black gay men being particularly stigmatised, the groups affected worst by Covid-19 are likely to be subject to stigma and many conspiracy theories have already resulted in such for Chinese people; with incidents including Chinese immigrants being spat at, avoided and scrutinised. Gao and Sai (2020) report on this as they illuminate the manner in which the Chinese diaspora legacy in the UK has already shifted from hardworking ‘model minority’ to disease-ridden ‘yellow peril’, a shift which is likely to be at the very least partially a result of the media’s representation of China as the epicentre of this disease; see for instance controversial Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s feature of the Chinese flag with Covid-19 instead of stars (above). Some of these media representations may well not have had the intent of alienation as can be evidenced in the reporting of hate crimes against Asian minorities, however, painting these as particular actions of already xenophobic far-righters (as e.g. seen in the Guardian on the 29th August, 2020) speaks to the depth of this perhaps unconscious racial bias.
Disease is a highly politicised, personalised, and at times racialised, matter controlled and regulated with a biased Euro-US-centric agenda where peoples and races are divided and where “who gets sick” absolutely matters in terms of relevance, news coverage and level of sympathy called for. The system of disease control (and people control) is a powerful one – as also evidenced in Dunbay’s articles (2020) on student mobility (here and here) – it decides who enters which countries, how people are treated within these countries, who gets help and even who gets sick as discussed in Boehme’s article on disease in the US . Considering the indisputable inequalities highlighted by scholars over the years, it seems it could possibly be time for a review of these systemic, racialised (and discriminative) policies of control?
References:
Brewis, Alexandra ; Wutich, Amber ; Mahdavi, Pardis (2020) Stigma, pandemics, and human biology: Looking back, looking forward, American journal of human biology, Vol.32 (5), p.e23480-n/a
Devakumar, Delan ; Shannon, Geordan ; Bhopal, Sunil S ; Abubakar, Ibrahim (2020) Racism and Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses, The Lancet (British edition), 2020-04-11, Vol.395 (10231), p.1194-1194
Gao, Grace ; Sai, Linna (2020) Opposing the toxic apartheid: The painted veil of the COVID-19 pandemic, race and racism, Gender, work, and organization, HOBOKEN: WILEY
Pieri, Elisa (2018) Media Framing and the Threat of Global Pandemics: The Ebola Crisis in UK Media and Policy Response, Sociological research online, Vol.24 (1), p.73-92, London, England: SAGE Publications
Pieri, Elisa (2018) Media Framing and the Threat of Global Pandemics: The Ebola Crisis in UK Media and Policy Response, Sociological research online, Vol.24 (1), p.73-92, London, England: SAGE Publications
Townsend, Mark and Iqbal, Nosheen, Far right using coronavirus as excuse to attack Asians, say police, The Guardian 29th August 2020, URL: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/29/far-right-using-coronavirus-as-excuse-to-attack-chinese-and-south-east-asians
Xu, Dashan – interview 26th November 2020 (full interview available in the article; ‘in conversation with… Dashan Xu’) https://raceandthepandemic.wixsite.com/home/post/in-conversation-with-dashan-xu-on-covid-19-stereotyping-and-being-a-chinese-philosopher-in-belgium
White, Alexandre I R (2020) Historical linkages: epidemic threat, economic risk, and xenophobia, The Lancet (London, England) Vol. 395, Iss. 10232: 1250-1251. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30737-6