Corona Virus article by Anne-Marie Nkhoma

Corona virus is a new respiratory illness, that was first reported in Wuhan, China on December
31 st 2019. More than 6,000 people have been infected by the virus and 170 killed since it spread
from Wuhan, China.

However, with the news of this new virus, it’s also resulted of racism towards Chinese
people who haven’t even got the virus. Most recently, a 60-year-old Chinese man died in
Sydney, Australia, because of a heart attack, whilst people around him stood by and refused to
give him CPR reportedly over fears of catching corona virus.

Trang Dong, who’s a Vietnamese American, posted a video on TikTok, where her and
her cousin are eating leftovers of pho while holding their spoons with their chopsticks.
In the last few days, Trang’s video has had a lot of racist comments such as “Where is the bat in
your soups???” or “Its corona time.” Making jokes about corona virus could be seen as racist as
well as insensitive to people with the virus.

On February 4 th , Mimi Aye, a Myanmese food writer (@meemalee on twitter) from
London posted photos of a Tube journey which showed people choosing to stand rather than sit
next to her. She then said "I got on to the Victoria line at Highbury and Islington and was on my
way to Oxford Circus. Platform was full, carriage was full, I noticed that no-one had sat down
either side of me and I thought 'Huh, that's weird'. I decided to take photos of the empty
seats around me. People around me looked very uncomfortable and wouldn't catch my eye."

This was because people assumed that Mimi had the virus,
The idea that every single Asian person has the virus is ridiculous, especially when not
all people originally from China and are living elsewhere have not even been to China or Wuhan
themselves.

There are myths about the virus, such as thinking it’s deadly and kills anyone who
catches it. The actual meaning of corona virus is that it’s a virus that attacks the respiratory
system, just like the common flu or pneumonia does. Though anyone can catch the virus, the effects can depend on several other factors. Older people and anyone with conditions that affect the
respiratory system (e.g. asthma, diabetes or heart disease) are more prone to the effects and
symptoms of the virus.

The symptoms of corona virus are very much similar to common flu, including a
headache, runny nose, sore throat and fever. According to ABC news, 10,000 people died from
the flu in 2019, and 180,000 people have been hospitalised because of this, but this is because
the majority of those who died from the flu had very weak immune systems, such as the elderly.
If you have a good enough immune system, the chances of you being affected or dying from the
flu and corona virus are pretty low.

Though these numbers may be very high, people are acting as if all Asians have
corona virus. It’s completely understandable to inform citizens about a new virus, but it’s not
okay for people to then become afraid of or be racist to all Asian people. If you want to avoid
catching the virus however, wash your hands more frequently, use hands sanitiser and ask
people to cover their mouths when they cough, but do not avoid a whole race because of how
they look, when they might not even have the virus.