The two articles I chose to look at this week are both speaking about a similar issue. First, I found this article is talking about how some people of the public are starting to react to the threat of the coronavirus. It begins by saying that there has been a Twitter video going viral that shows a man attacking a woman who ‘looks Chinese,’ calling her diseased. This incident is being investigated as a hate crime by authorities. However, the incident is not isolated to this one time. At Columbia, one of the library chalkboards had the words “Wuhan virus isolation area. Keep out!” written on it. The writing was a little broken so it seemed to be written by a non-native Chinese speaker. Students at Columbia decided to take this to social media to share their disappointment with their student body. These incidents show how some people are starting to pair a horrible disease with a race. The article goes on to suggest people work at reducing their own exposure and contamination rather than blaming others. Students should be screened for the disease when returning to New York.
The second article is also talking about coronavirus. It first mentions that residents of New York are anxiously waiting to hear if there is a confirmed first case of coronavirus in the state. The school urges students to get screened and to isolate themselves in order to prevent the spreading. Especially when international students have traveled to China in the last couple of weeks. Funding for students to go to China has also been withdrawn until the disease calms down. This article also must bring up the fact that students from China and other Asian countries have been facing lots of stigma and hate because of this outbreak. Many people have been dealing with hate speech and other bullying because all Chinese people are being seen as ‘patient zero.’
