With the outbreak of the coronavirus in China many people, are identifying and correlating it to China and Chinese citizens. However the coronaviruses is actually a large family of viruses that cause illness. It is not a sole virus stemming from Wuhan china. That branch is defined as the novel coronavirus (nCoV) is novel because it has not been previously identified in humans. The identification of the coronavirus with the Chinese has lead to unintentional racism and exclusion. There is a fine line between protection and discrimination. As anti-Chinese sentiment has been seen in numerous places such as UC Berkeley where an Instagram post stated that xenophobia is a possible reaction to the spread of the coronavirus. This post is giving an “okay” to racism being a proper response to a disease outbreak. This only divides our nation more and inhibits the progress to contain the epidemic and instills fear into Asian-American citizens. It is condemning racism within college campuses and is appalling to see.
What is a Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are zoonotic. They are spread between animals and people. The World Health Organization claims that there are several known coronaviruses circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans. The severity of coronaviruses varies from each strand. They range from the common cold to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The Lancet claims the nCoV is suggested to be linked to the SARS virus strands: bat-SL-CoVZC45 and bat-SL-CoVZXC21 which are both bat derived strained SARS viruses. The bat strain SARS were collected in 2018 in Zhoushan Eastern China. The Lancet reports that there was an 88% sequence identity to the virus. Coronaviruses initially spread from animal to human and then it is spread from human to human on a continuum.
Symptoms and Transmission of nCoV
The CDC reports 3 confirmed symptoms of the nCoV including Fever, cough and shortness of breath. It has Incubation period ranging from 2 – 14 days. This medium length incubation period allows for mass unknown spreading of the disease. This is why the disease has been spreading rapidly and has been hard to contain within China. It is spread via respiratory droplets produced when the infected coughs or sneezes. This is very similar to the spread of the common cold and flu. The initial symptoms align with those of the common cold which can allow for a misdiagnosis by the infected and allow for an increased spread because people might assume they simply have a cold or the flu. The droplets is a form of indirect transmission. It is crucial for the prevention of the spread of the disease for people to wash their hands frequently and cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze. People should do this all the time but it is extremely important now.
Importance of Separating Origin and Person
When disease outbreaks occur it is important to not correlate a disease with an ethnicity or nationality because of the origins of the disease. We often become unknowingly insensitive towards racial groups where disease outbreaks occur. This often stems from personal protection but it is important to be sensitive to those going through such a traumatic and intense time. Especially as America is a cultural melting pot we should be sympathetic and not racist. This current xenophobia exhibited in America is similar to the racism and xenophobia towards Africans which occurred during the Ebola outbreaks in 2011. Blatant racism was shown through memes, jokes, exclusion and commentary. So as scientists and epidemiologists attempt to identify and contain this strain of coronavirus it is important for us to remain respectful and sympathetic to the infected because it could happen to any of us.
The Good, The Bad, The Microbiome 