Edmond Li ASA 002 A03 Week 1

The coronavirus disease is an infectious disease that results in fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. It was first identified in late 2019 and spread globally through close contact. Without warning, thousands of people in the United States became infected with the disease, causing schools and businesses to be shut down. By mid-march, the entire world is in quarantine and the streets are empty as if an apocalypse happened. We eventually found out the US has over 300 thousand cases, the largest in the world. As the number gets higher, the more fear is spread, and President Donald Trump offered his perspective on the matter and said: "There will be a lot of deaths."

Because of recent events, I expect this course to teach us how Asian Americans were affected by this catastrophe. As an Asian American myself, I ask these questions: Were Asian Americans the most vulnerable to infection? What was it like being treated as the source? Will international travelers get to go back to their home country? Considering the impact on the world, I expect the fracture between Asian Americans and the country to remain even after the crisis has passed. This will certainly leave a mark in Asian American history.

In the article, "Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia" by Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde, the author suffered deep prejudice by the institutions she worked for due to her race and gender. I feel a sense of dread to how much the author has experienced as an entire life of this can easily change a person to the worse.

Question: When will the COVID-19 outbreak finally end?

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Linh Caroline Valverde

Reference: Holcombe, Madeline. “The US Enters Crucial Weeks after a Grim Milestone of Most Deaths Reported in One Day.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Apr. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/04/05/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html.

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline, and Wei Ming Dariotis. Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. Rutgers University Press, 2020.