Anahí Viladrich is with the Department of Sociology and Department of Anthropology, Queens College, and the Graduate Center and the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY.
Am J Public Health. 2021 May;111(5):876-880. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306201. Epub 2021 Mar 18.
This article critically examines the recent literature on stigma that addresses the overspread association among the COVID-19 pandemic and racial and ethnic groups (i.e., mainland Chinese and East Asian populations) assumed to be the source of the virus.The analysis begins by reviewing the way in which infectious diseases have historically been associated with developing countries and their citizens, which, in turn, are supposed to become prime vectors of contagion. The latter extends to the current labeling of COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus," that-along with a number of other terms-has fueled race-based stigma against Asian groups in the United States and overseas. This review further discusses the limitations of current COVID-19 antistigma initiatives that mostly focus on individual-based education campaigns as opposed to multisectorial programs informed by human rights and intersectional perspectives.Finally, the article ends with a call to the international public health community toward addressing the most recent outbreak of stigma, one that has revealed the enormous impact of words in amplifying racial bias against particular minority populations in the developed world.
本文批判性地审视了近期关于污名化的文献，这些文献涉及 COVID-19 大流行与被认为是病毒来源的种族和族裔群体（即中国大陆和东亚人群）之间的过度关联。分析首先回顾了传染病在历史上与发展中国家和这些国家的公民之间的联系，而这些国家又被认为是传染病的主要传播媒介。这种联系延伸到将 COVID-19 称为“中国病毒”，以及其他一些术语，这些术语助长了美国和海外针对亚裔群体的基于种族的污名化。本文进一步讨论了当前 COVID-19 反污名化举措的局限性，这些举措主要侧重于以个人为基础的教育活动，而不是从人权和交叉视角出发的多部门计划。最后，本文呼吁国际公共卫生界应对最近的污名化爆发，这场爆发揭示了言辞在放大发达世界针对特定少数族裔群体的种族偏见方面的巨大影响。
