Coronavirus panic is not a free pass for ignorance

On the first day of class, I walked around campus with even more social anxiety than usual. I felt jumpy and skittish, constantly wondering if people were looking at me with suspicion or giving me a wide berth because they thought I was sick. 

I tried my best not to look tired or sniffle, hoping the dark circles under my eyes would read as “sleep-deprived” rather than “deathly ill with the coronavirus.” I can only imagine what the Chinese international students were thinking about that day. Who knows, maybe they didn’t care. The paranoia could have been all in my head and I doubted that anyone would say anything to my face, but we’re all too familiar with how people in this country hide their prejudices behind a kind smile. 

This is not new: the panic surrounding the Ebola virus in 2014 was also overblown and many people of African descent received an unnecessary amount of scrutiny. I understand that people want to be safe and protect the people they care about, but the threat level of the coronavirus is not high enough in the U.S. to justify anything even remotely extreme. 

The coronavirus that’s impacting the world right now originated in Wuhan, China. It bears similarities to (Severe Acute Respiratory System) SARS, which also originated in China. The Chinese government tried to cover up how serious the threat level was in 2003 with SARS and also tried to downplay this current outbreak earlier in January, but the international news cycle prevented similar attempts to suppress information leaks. 

However, shady governmental behavior and the virus’ appearance in the U.S are not hall passes to be disparaging of Chinese culture or Chinese people.

Ignorant and illogical thinking fuels fear, exactly what the world does not need as people work to address the epidemic and its victims. Being suspicious of people who look Chinese will not make you any safer. 

The immediate reaction to troubling news in this era is to make jokes and memes about the situation. Humor is a coping mechanism, but the coronavirus patients are part of something unprecedented and terrifying, so they need to be treated with the compassion and care that suffering people deserve. These jokes should never cross the line into generalization and outright racism. 

Although the numbers look scary, we have not been left defenseless against the virus. As of Monday, Feb. 3, the eight coronavirus patients in the U.S. have been put into isolation, limiting the chances that the contagion spreads to someone else. They have all been travelers who came directly from Wuhan. This campus has no need for the panic that disinformation can generate. 

In our area, there is much more of a threat from cold and flu strains than the coronavirus. Practicing good hygiene is key, and it is something people should be doing anyway. Everyone benefits from being surrounded by people who are doing their best to stay healthy. 

That being said, people still get sick; my immune system might not make it through the season unscathed. I just want my sniffles to be given the benefit of the doubt.