'Action needed to safeguard those at risk of being scapegoated in coronavirus crisis'

The unfolding coronavirus drama is a matter of the never-ending war between humans and microbes, with the smaller of combatant always probing for the weakest link.
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Given the global nature of the coronavirus and its expansion, if it is teaching us anything, it is our interconnectedness on this earth.

However, as history sadly shows us, whenever there is a situation of perceived threat, groups and individuals, especially those who are vulnerable, can experience scapegoating and worse. It is something we must all be on our guard against and must challenge as and when these things present themselves.

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This reality was brought home to me again when walking through town to a meeting, I was obliged to intervene in a situation, in which a young lad, who is born and bred here and just happens to be of Mixed Race – White English and Chinese - ethnicities, was approached by two older White males and asked, in an accusatory fashion, why he didn’t have a mask on. Their rationale for asking, they asserted, was ‘in case he infected others with the chow mein virus’. I was able to tell them their harassment of this person was unacceptable, racist and unlawful.

Pedestrians wearing face masks  (Photo by Toru Hanai/Getty Images)Pedestrians wearing face masks  (Photo by Toru Hanai/Getty Images)
Pedestrians wearing face masks (Photo by Toru Hanai/Getty Images)

In other instances, the ill-treatment of Chinese students by some people has not abated and they continue to be subjected to excessive staring, especially if wearing masks and they have even been approached in offensive ways by ignorant people and, at times, verbally abused and threatened by racist people for wearing masks.

However, in contrast to these disgraceful instances, it has also been heartwarming and encouraging for us in Equalities and Human Rights to see and have reported back to us how, in the main, the majority of Sheffield people have been standing up for, challenging and championing members of our diverse Chinese ethnic community when approached in these unsavoury ways.

Scapegoating and racially abusing people was never and is not the Sheffield way.

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Those adversely reacting to others, in this scapegoating way, have not listened to what global health experts have been telling us for years. In the fight against infectious disease, your problem is also very much my problem.

This has implications for rich and poor regions and nations alike. Unfortunately, this ignoring of our interconnectedness and the ignoring of public health advice, is not vested solely in individuals acting thus, but Governments too, have not always been the best listeners nor heeders of this advice.

If we take the US Congress, as an example, in recent times, they approved roughly $8 billion (about £7bn) to fight coronavirus at home. A few days earlier, the UN had released a meagre $15 million to help the world’s most vulnerable countries fight the same outbreak.

Likewise, our own Government did not take into account the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control advice on March 11, which said the detection of Covid-19 cases and/or deaths outside of known chains of transmission is a signal social distancing measures should be considered and there was an urgent need for early implementation of closures and quarantines, which are likely to be more effective in slowing the spread of the virus than a delayed implementation.

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We only have to look at one of the most organised societies and one of the biggest economies in the world - China – to see that even they have been overwhelmed by this new pandemic, unable to meet people’s needs, with overfilled emergency rooms andh people labouring with pneumonia needing oxygen therapy to keep them alive, to see prevention is a prerequisite to avoiding replication here in the UK.

However, the UK Government instead took a line of ‘business as usual’, rather than invoking the advised measures to attenuate the spread of Covid-19.

While presenting a position of hoping for the best, it should have always been the case that Government and public authorities should have been planning for the worse many weeks ago and sharing this planning with the public, as well as implementing the important task of planning for the safeguarding of those at risk of being scapegoated, as well as strengthening contact tracing, surveillance and necessary public health actions in addition to the measures recommended by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Putting the economy above expected and required preparedness and the hassle it will cause to close schools etc. may well have been a driving factor in Government and others not heeding the advice.

Assurances to the contrary somehow don’t ring true.

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