Rather than each other - Thomas Stallkamp
A man from a middle-class family in India to his house help: “Please don’t come to work from tomorrow till it is safe for you to be in a public space. Your monthly salary will keep reaching you without any wage cut.”
Maid: “Why? Do you think I might be carrying the virus?”
The past few months have seen the entire world come to a standstill. Economies have begun showing a downward trend and nationwide lockdowns have been implemented to fight against a virus that has infected around 4,46,000 people globally. The human race is under threat and our (only) choice of weapon is the hand-wash and staying in-doors.
Coming from the ‘Novel CoronaVirus,’ COVID – 19 is a disease which comes with symptoms like dry cough, fever, difficulty while breathing, and in some cases, even severe body ache, nasal congestion, a running nose, throat ache, or acute diarrhoea. The virus is carried and spread primarily by means of droplets from an infected person by either coughing or sneezing; the two most common ways being – 1) if someone comes in direct contact with an infected person, i.e., within one meter, while they are coughing or sneezing, or 2) if someone comes in indirect contact with an infected person through droplets on clothes or surface areas and then by touching their mouth, eyes, or nose. Usually, the detection period within which symptoms become prominent is between 1 - 14 days; however, an individual might carry the infection without any visible symptoms and continue the spread.
It was a few days back when my friend and I were discussing the global epidemic when we discerned a rather unconsidered aspect of the pandemic, the roots of which run very deep. Several details of COVID - 19 elude researchers. The virus is an enigma which means that it demands suspicion as the principal tool to cure and eliminate it from the community. This, along with the cloud of uncertainty encompassing the virus assaults the very core of unity and empathy natural to humans which is required to confront and overcome an apocalypse.
Since the outbreak of COVID – 19, several cases of racist attacks on the East Asian communities have been reported. Hesitation to serve Japanese customers among store clerks in Egypt has become a common trend with “Corona” being a new slur towards Japanese people on the streets. A woman on the streets of Schaerbeek, Belgium was threatened, spat on, and called “Coronavirus”. A Korean woman from Midtown Manhattan in New York dislocated her jaw when she was hurled at and punched for not wearing a mask. Cases of harassment on students from North East India over the fear of COVID - 19 were filed to the college authorities in Delhi and Mumbai. Numerous media outlets and leaders have even gone on record and addressed the virus as ‘Wuhan Virus’ or the ‘Chinese Virus.’ Quite a few people with Asian origins living in other parts of the world have also faced violent racist attacks. Having said that, the increase in racist attacks or even jocular jabs towards the community are an ineluctable result of the epidemic. If we were to dissect the chronology of xenophobia and its origins in this situation, it offers a rather uncomplicated explanation – the disease fosters fear amongst people which ultimately leads to discrimination. An example to substantiate the theory would be the discrimination Europeans faced in the United States as they were more vulnerable during the outbreak of Yellow Fever (1853). Similarly, only a few years back East Asians were the victims of racial backlash when SARS (2002) broke out, whereas Africans were globally targeted when Ebola wiped out a major chunk of their population in 2014. In retrospect, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to get rid of the traditional method when naming COVID – 19 and did not base it on the geographical location it originated from (For example, Ebola was named after the river in Congo where it originated from).
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 2,44,893 samples against the 1.3 billion population of our country have been tested for COVID-19 as of April, 14. This number in itself is very minimal given that the first case of Coronavirus was found in India on January 30. After further probing the situation, it shows that the reason for the low number of tests does not lie on the supply side of the issue - medical facilities in India (136 government laboratories and 56 private laboratories) have the capacity to conduct around 18,000 tests in a single day. Adding to that the Indian government has strategized only to test people who have a travel history or are connected to such an individual. As was reported by The Guardian, the cases of Coronavirus reported in India is lower than the actual number of cases because of meagre testing numbers and poor access to healthcare.
The resistance to coming out and getting tested may not solely be mortal or reflective of poor health-care administration. A substantial bit of stigma surrounding being in quarantine or being tested COVID – 19 positive is quite prevalent in our country. India’s problems with societal stigma and taboo are ingrained in history as well as the present social fabric of the nation. Reports where people have aggressed or have gotten scared when officials in hazmat suits arrived to do the tests or labelled a particular home as ‘COVID – 19 quarantined’ have been quite frequent. Videos of stones being pelted at health care workers in Indore became viral; similar cases have also been recorded in Bihar, Karnataka, and Telangana. Additionally, there have been reports where health-care workers and doctors (especially those who cater to COVID - 19 - affected patients) who have been living on rent have been asked to vacate the premises. Not just medical professionals, but airline staffers who have worked on rescuing thousands of Indians stranded abroad have also been facing discrimination, especially those who have worked in severely affected countries such as China and Italy. Doctors in Warangal, Telangana are denied rental accommodation due to the virus scare. The news of migrant workers sitting on the streets sprayed with disinfectant by healthcare workers also created a stir. Many such reports of discriminatory acts against doctors and health care workers are seen incessantly. A doctor working at the Surat Civil Hospital was physically assaulted by a neighbour, and on the other hand, five suspected COVID - 19 patients escaped from Mayo Hospital in Nagpur. And very recently, a 50 year old man in Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru reportedly committed suicide due to depression of being tested COVID-19 positive.
The answer to these puzzling incidents may lie in the concept of stigma. At its very core, the concept of stigma comprises three basic elements – prejudicial attitudes, lack of proper knowledge, and discriminatory behaviour. The attached stigma on a particular individual often leads to extreme consequences, such as loss of self–esteem, stigmatization of own self, reduction in job opportunities, and social exclusion. This creates a significant obstacle when it comes to early detection and the attention required regarding treatment of a particular disease. Another essential factor which plays a major role is the experience of the anticipated stigma or discrimination in terms of societal rejection. Human beings are inherently social creatures. Therefore, the fear of social exclusion plays a rather vital role in restricting us from coming out and speaking when the notions of blame, guilt, and exclusion run parallel. Our country has long been acquainted with the concept of social stigma and exclusion (read: caste divide and religious segmentation); which is why it is neither strange nor surprising for people to experience inhibitions towards getting tested even though they might be showing symptoms of COVID – 19 given the pitiful promise of discrimination and exclusion.
The struggle against COVID – 19 has only begun. A lot is unknown and even more is unplanned regarding the aftermath of this residential virus. The world will probably change forever, we will discover novel ways of coping, and civilization will survive in a new (and possibly improved) shape and form. But will we keep seeing shadows of the divide in the modern world?
As Charles Darwin had once said, “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
Soham Chatterjee
