General Information
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing illness in people, and others that circulate among animals, including camels, cats, and bats. Rarely animal coronaviruses can evolve and infect people and then spread between people.Human coronaviruses are common throughout the world and commonly cause mild to moderate illness in people worldwide. However, the emergence of novel (new) coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, have been associated with more severe respiratory illness. The current outbreak of coronavirus has specifically been named as SARS-CoV-2. The health condition resulting from the virus is known as Covid-19.
For the latest national information, see the CDC covid-19 page here. One link on that CDC page is specifically for families and schools, here.
For the latest local information, see the Illinois Department of Public Health here. IDPH also has a page specifically for families and schools here.
Sociology and Social Changes
From St. Louis Today,
The concepts of sociology, such as institutions, interdependence, deviance, roles and inequalities, can help us better understand what is happening and how we might best react to stresses in our communities and shifting social expectations ...A sociological perspective helps us see that institutions are made, maintained and reinforced by humans. Institutions can be edited, improved, degraded or destroyed by humans as well...Sociology helps us understand that institutions have manifest functions, the goals formally assigned by society, and latent functions, myriad other goals that are implicitly assigned...sociology helps us be attentive to inequality. Rash decisions can exacerbate disparities in power, health, opportunities and more...
Sociology of Public Health: Managing Disease Spread
The graph below shows the variable ways that the virus can spread in depending on the policies and structure of each country. Graphs are available here. Will the U.S. be able to mitigate the spread like Japan or will it spike like Italy? Note how South Korea had an initial spike but then was able to contain the spread.
Epidemiologists suggest a measured response to how widespread the virus is. Here is one chart illustrated in the San Jose Times:
With careful monitoring, the hope is that our country can minimize disruption while mitigating the spread of the virus. That is the purpose of the chart above. This is sometimes called "flattening the curve". The goal is to keep the peak of the curve below the maximum capability of the healthcare system. See this Vox article and the graph below:
Medium explains flattening the curve and shares this graphic:
via GIPHY
Unfortunately, it appears that the US has not handled the crisis well:
Structural Challenges facing the U.S.
From the Financial Times, Why the U.S. is So Vulnerable to Coronavirus Outbreak
As the number of coronavirus cases mount in the US, experts are warning that the country is unusually vulnerable to the spread of the disease.... Public health officials and academics are concerned that a mix of high numbers of uninsured people, a lack of paid sick leave and a political class that has downplayed the threat could mean it spreads more quickly than in other countries.
Sociology of pandemics from Society Pages
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/05/04/flu-pandemics/
Epidemiologists suggest a measured response to how widespread the virus is. Here is one chart illustrated in the San Jose Times:
With careful monitoring, the hope is that our country can minimize disruption while mitigating the spread of the virus. That is the purpose of the chart above. This is sometimes called "flattening the curve". The goal is to keep the peak of the curve below the maximum capability of the healthcare system. See this Vox article and the graph below:
via GIPHY
Unfortunately, it appears that the US has not handled the crisis well:
Singapore Wins Praise For Its COVID-19 Strategy. The U.S. Does Not
Structural Challenges facing the U.S.
From the Financial Times, Why the U.S. is So Vulnerable to Coronavirus Outbreak
As the number of coronavirus cases mount in the US, experts are warning that the country is unusually vulnerable to the spread of the disease.... Public health officials and academics are concerned that a mix of high numbers of uninsured people, a lack of paid sick leave and a political class that has downplayed the threat could mean it spreads more quickly than in other countries.
From PEW research center, the data below shows that paid leave varies substantially, but the lowest earning workers are most at risk.
Interactive Map for Covid-19
Sociology of pandemics from Society Pages
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/05/04/flu-pandemics/
Sociology of Media and Spread of Fear
Sociology shows how public health epidemics can become panic based on how news covers the story.
Sociology and Discrimination
Disease exposes discrimination
Fears about the current coronavirus, or COVID-19, have revealed rampant racism and xenophobia against Asians. Anti-Asian discrimination ranges from avoiding Chinese businesses to direct bullying and assaults of people perceived to be Asian. This discriminatory behavior is nothing new. The United States has a long history of blaming marginalized groups when it comes to infectious disease, from Irish immigrants blamed for carrying typhus to “promiscuous women” for spreading sexually transmitted infections.
If anyone can give you a disease, everyone is potentially a threat and your enemy. Crises such as coronavirus test social trust as well as science.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/03/01/coronavirus-fight-fear-racism-anti-chinese-sentiment-campus-column/4913481002/From Stacy Torres is an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UC San Francisco. Xuemei Cao is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York.
Coronavirus fears show how 'model minority' Asian Americans become the 'yellow peril'
While viruses and other pathogens do not discriminate between hosts based on race, ethnicity, nationality or immigration status — stigma and misinformation certainly do.
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/02/811363404/when-xenophobia-spreads-like-a-virus?utm_campaign=npr&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews
From Time Magazine, Trump's 'Chinese' Virus Is Part of a Long History of Blaming Other Countries for Disease (March 20, 2020)
Graffiti, handshakes and the “perpetual foreigner”: Asian Americans at Northwestern report alienation amid COVID-19.
From Time Magazine, Trump's 'Chinese' Virus Is Part of a Long History of Blaming Other Countries for Disease (March 20, 2020)
From Northwestern University's Daily Northwestern, Yunkyo Kim posted (2020)...one part of President Donald Trump’s reaction to coronavirus has remained consistent. More than a week after he prompted outcry by retweeting a supporter who called the novel coronavirus the “China virus,” photos from Trump’s Thursday press briefing about the virus showed that “corona” had been crossed out and replaced with “Chinese.” The President and his team have defended the use of that language—despite the World Health Organization making a point of not naming the disease after the place where the outbreak began, and despite advocates arguing that such terminology fuels the risk of hate crimes against people of Asian descent, who have already reported a surge in discrimination.While Trump may have his own political reasons for describing the virus as foreign, he’s also part of a long history of associating diseases with certain countries—a tradition that experts say has led to ethnic and racial discrimination, stymied efforts to effectively handle public health crises, and distorted public historical memory.
Graffiti, handshakes and the “perpetual foreigner”: Asian Americans at Northwestern report alienation amid COVID-19.
From a 2018 article in the American Journal of Public Health, “Spanish Flu”: When Infectious Disease Names Blur Origins and Stigmatize Those Infected" also available here.
Despite not originating in Spain, the 1918 influenza pandemic is commonly known as the “Spanish flu”—a name that reflects a tendency in public health history to associate new infectious diseases with foreign nationals and foreign countries. Intentional or not, an effect of this naming convention is to communicate a causal relationship between foreign populations and the spread of infectious disease, potentially promoting irrational fear and stigma. I address two relevant issues to help contextualize these naming practices. First is whether, in an age of global hyperinterconnectedness, fear of the other is truly irrational or has a rational basis. The empirical literature assessing whether restricting global airline travel can mitigate the global spread of modern epidemics suggests that the role of travel may be overemphasized. Second is the persistence of xenophobic responses to infectious disease in the face of contrary evidence. To help explain this, I turn to the health communication literature. Scholars argue that promoting an association between foreigners and a particular epidemic can be a rhetorical strategy for either promoting fear or, alternatively, imparting a sense of safety to the public. (Am J Public Health. 2018;108:1462–1464. doi:10. 2105/AJPH.2018.304645)
Irony and hypocrisy
GOP Representaive Matt Gaetz made fun of the virus by tweeting the picture below. In a turn of sweet justice, Gaetz had to self-quarantine because he himself was exposed to the virus. And shortly after that, Gaetz had to acknowledge the seriousness of the virus when someone from his own district died.
From NPR,
Reps. Mark Meadows, Doug Collins, and Matt Gaetz said Monday that they are self-quarantining after learning they came in contact with a person infected with coronavirus while attending a conservative conference in the Washington area last month.Bobby Rush v. Matt Gaetz
However, the disparate treatment of Bobby Rush reveals racial inequality and the institutionalized racism that prevents some Americans from seriously drawing attention to racial inequalities while allowing other Americans to freely joke around about deadly outcomes.
ABC News:
Asians facing discrimination, violence amid coronavirus outbreakWikipedia:
In the past, many diseases have been named after geographical locations, such as the Spanish flu (a misnomer, as it is generally agreed that the influenza did not begin in Spain[1]), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Zika virus, but in 2015 the World Health Organization introduced recommendations to avoid this practice, in order to reduce stigma. In accordance with this policy, the WHO recommended the official name "COVID-19" in February 2020.[2]
In early coverage of the outbreak, some news sources associated the virus with China in a way that contributed to stigma. The journal Nature later published an apology for this type of coverage.[2][3] However, even after the majority of politicians had switched to avoiding stigmatizing language when referring to the virus, a minority continued.[2]
List of racist incidents around the world here:
NY Times:
Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety
As bigots blame them for the coronavirus and President Trump labels it the “Chinese virus,” many Chinese-Americans say they are terrified of what could come next.
NPR:
New Site Collects Reports Of Racism Against Asian Americans Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Last week Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, started tracking these attacks on a new website he helped launch called Stop AAPI Hate. In the site's first eight days, it received more than 650 reports of discrimination — largely against the Asian American community.
The Hill:
Attacks on Asian Americans skyrocket to 100 per day during coronavirus pandemic.Representative Judy Chu said that reports of bigotry and hate crimes against Asian Americans have surged during the coronavirus crisis.
LA Times:
Op-Ed: Trump’s racist comments are fueling hate crimes against Asian Americans. Time for state leaders to step in
After news of the coronavirus broke in January, Asian Americans almost immediately experienced racial taunts on school campuses, shunning on public transit and cyber-bullying on social media. When President Trump insisted on labeling the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” in early March, these attacks became more virulent and common.
The FBI now warns of an increase of hate crimes against Asian Americans, but we’ve already experienced a surge. Since the Stop-AAPI-Hate website, a project of the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action, launched on March 19 to track anti-Asian harassment, it has received more than 1,000 reports from people in 32 states detailing verbal abuse, denial of services, discrimination on the job or physical assaults.
A Man Who Allegedly Tried To Kill An Asian American Family Because Of The Coronavirus Could Face Hate Crime Charges.
The incident is just one in a surge of racist attacks that Asian-Americans have faced during the coronavirus pandemic.
Newsweek:
A 'CHINESE CORONAVIRUS'? OFFICIALS ACCUSE TRUMP OF STOKING XENOPHOBIA AND VIOLENCE AGAINST ASIAN-AMERICANS
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