Racism behind coronavirus paranoia

While China was quickly building hospitals in Wuhan and people from around the world were donating masks, some politicians and pundits in the United States were lashing out at the nation that is already on the front lines of combating a global epidemic.

In addition to questioning the death toll, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton went so far as to suggest the virus was manufactured in a "level four super laboratory." What expertise does he have in medicine or epidemiology to make this claim?

It doesn't matter; that's the same Tom Cotton who claimed the earth's temperature is not warming, a science-denying statement, despite having no expertise in climate studies. So he apparently is unwilling to accept the fact viruses can spread between living organisms.

But this is a man who is influential in American policy making. He is a rising figure within the Republican Party, and President Donald Trump appears to take his advice. Cotton, appearing on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight on Jan 29, said he "urged the Trump administration" to "stop commercial air travel" from China. Donald Trump, who one week ago claimed "We have it totally under control," banned Chinese and other foreign nationals from entering the country if they had spent any time in China, a policy that impacted Chinese students and even more business travelers, researchers and tourists.

Cotton is not the only one in the US to make dodgy claims and spread fear. But Cotton is one of the highest ranking, and he should know better.

His words impact others. When supposed authority figures make loose comments, they risk inducing panic and spreading misinformation that could counter the effort to fight coronavirus. What the world needs is a rational response based on evidence, not fear-mongering and partisan politicking. Unfortunately quite a few bloggers jumped on Cotton's conspiratorial comments in order to claim the virus was "man-made."

It's possible to argue he was taken out of context. But he was perfectly clear about his recommendation to ban flights from China, and perfectly clear about his idea the number is much higher than reported.

Carlson, star of the right-wing Fox News lineup, also asked, with his unique brand of snark and feigned surprise, "So far, travel between the US and China is completely unaffected. Why? Who knows?"

Well, maybe because the World Health Organization advises against it, and the vast majority of policy experts agree travel bans don't work. But the US announced the travel ban just a few days later. (Trump spends a lot of time watching Fox News, too, so it's possible he took his advice from Carlson.)

What's behind the overbearing response and paranoia? There is the well-known fact people fear the unknown more than the routine. "Exotic" viruses that seem to come about suddenly are scarier than influenza, for example. A shooting on a long-distance bus in California in the early morning of Feb 3, which killed one and wounded five, does not alarm people in the US when there are hundreds of random public shootings every year.

But there may be some other motives influencing some people's attitudes toward coronavirus, on account of claims that it originated in China.

As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Cotton frequently criticizes China. He is right to be on the lookout for what he feels is in the national interest of his country, but when it comes to matters of public health one ought to drop his animus and solve a problem that affects all of humanity. Indeed, stopping it now will also decrease the likelihood of it spreading in the US.

The diagnosis for Carlson, I'm afraid, is a good deal more grave. Here is a man who blames "immigrants" for dirtying America's environment: "litter is left almost exclusively by immigrants," he said in a December 2019 interview. In 2018, he blamed immigrants for the fact that, in his view, America is becoming more divided. In one segment, he warned that "immigrants" are "replacing" "Americans."

Does any of that sound racist to you? Don't worry, it's not. Carlson, after all, also said in 2019 that white supremacy "is not a real problem in America," it's a "hoax." Glad that's been cleared up.

The problem of racism with regard to coronavirus response is not limited to the United States, but has been expressed in other countries, in Asia and Europe and elsewhere. In Korea, some restaurants posted signs saying "no Chinese."

A funny thing happened in the UK: masks are sold out everywhere, despite the fact there are only three confirmed cases of coronavirus in the whole country. And yet, when a student who appeared to be of Chinese descent was seen walking to class at the University of Sheffield wearing a mask, she was verbally attacked by multiple students, according to a report published at Guancha.

Now, you might ask, as Tucker Carlson did, what, at all, does "racism" have to do with the response to coronavirus? There's your answer.

Mitchell Blatt is a columnist and a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.