Hanling Zhu ASA2 A02 Week 1

Hanling Zhu
ASA2 A02
Week1

Recently, coronavirus spread throughout the world and many countries were deeply affected by the coronavirus, which was first found in China, Wuhan. As an international student from China, I know a lot about coronavirus. I keep tracking the situation of COVID-19 since January, since my hometown was one of the places that have the most serious coronavirus situation. I learned a lot about coronavirus from the news. Chinese government posted lots of information about COVID-19 through all kinds of media in order to relieve people’s anxiety and let people know how to keep themselves away from coronavirus and protect themselves. Also, the Chinese government made some policies to limit the spread of the disease. For example, people were highly recommended to stay at home, people must wear masks to go outside, and the flights to other countries were greatly decreased. Therefore, I used to think coronavirus will not be a worldwide problem. However, the COVID-19 started to spread in many other countries, especially for countries in Europe and the US.

Because most of the international students from China learned how serious the coronavirus is, they started to wear masks as the coronavirus first to spread in the country they stay. However, due to the cultural differences, these students who wear masks were discriminated against by local citizens. The locals themselves do not wear masks, and they also not allow Chinese students to wear masks. Some international students from China were abused for wearing masks. According to recent news from CNN, “The woman was wearing a face mask -- something many East Asians have done long before the coronavirus outbreak, including for protection from pollution. One witness said she heard a man call the woman, who appeared Asian, a ‘diseased b****.’ (Yan; Chen; Naresh, 2020).” I think the disease is what people all over the world should deal with. People should not discriminate against people who come from where the disease was first discovered.

Now, many countries have implemented policies that were used in China to fight COVID-19. I think with the joint effort of the whole world, the disease will be eliminated. Finally, I really hope everyone can stay safe and there will be no discrimination anymore.

Reference:

Yan, H; Chen, N and Naresh, D. (February 2020). CNN. What's spreading faster than coronavirus in the US? Racist assaults and ignorant attacks against Asians. Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/us/coronavirus-racist-attacks-against-asian-americans/index.html

Photo retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html