Coronavirus is spreading in China, and the whole country is in lockdown, trying to contain it. It has spread to other countries, but mostly in Asia. Some western countries have a few cases here and there, nothing seems concerning.
As of today, China alone has over 75,000 infection cases (out of 76,600 cases worldwide) and over 2,200 deaths (almost exclusively in China). However, the majority of cases and deaths are happening in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemy. Other cities, even large cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, etc, have very few cases, comparatively speaking.
Given the size and the population density, and given the fact that this whole thing happened during the largest yearly human migration period, the Chinese New Year holidays, when hundreds of millions of people are travelling, the results of this epidemic crisis management in China are incredible, with the Chinese population paying a high price.
This evening, I was reading an article on the CBC website regarding the subject, but it occurred to me to take a look at the comments section, which is rare for me.
What I read in the comments section made me sad. The whole section is filled with racist comments, racist towards Chinese people, demeaning towards China and Chinese culture in general. I went over 3,000 or more comments, and almost every comment was raging with hatred. I stopped there, as there were so many more.
What are all these hatred, disdain, rage, scorn and mockery towards China and Chinese people about? What have the Chinese people done to you?
Let’s just hope that the virus could be contained within its current boundary, and hope that countries that are currently not affected would stay safe. Otherwise, could you imagine the extra resentment and enmity, piled up over existing hatreds, for initiating the virus and infecting the whole world?
What’s grimmer than seeing the virus spread through the planet, and every country lock down as China does now? Nothing, except maybe the dark side of human nature.