There is something about viruses and diseases that causes people to freak out and become intolerable of other people. During the black plague, European Christians blamed the Jewish population for the plague and had them persecuted. Some were even killed.

The Spanish Flu was given its name because people believed that Spain was the hardest hit by the influenza and had somehow caused the sickness.

 When the Ebola Virus started to become a more well known issue, there was a lot of racism towards African immigrants and just anyone from Africa because at the time there was a serious outbreak in West Africa. This fear people have is not just some fear of the disease-it becomes a fear of a whole people, and eventually a seating hatred for these people. Right now it is not only Chinese people, but sometimes all East Asians that reap the racism that is a side effect of the Coronavirus outbreak. 

The Coronavirus started in the Chinese province of Wuhan and has since spread outside of China. However, it is China that has seen the most citizens die in the past couple months. The rational idea would be that we should help the people of Wuhan and make sure to stop the disease in its tracks; the irrational idea, and sadly an idea many people seem to have, is to close our doors and fear/hate any East Asians we see. There have been incidents spoken about specifically on social media: an Asian man in Australia  had a heart attack. No one around him would help fearing he had the coronavirus. 

In countries outside of the East Asian sphere, the level of racism involved is becoming more of an issue. Some white people believe all Asians are Chinese, and this has seen all kinds of innocent and healthy people get attacked simply because they are Asian. In countries that are around the East Asian sphere there is extreme xenophobia and hatred towards the Chinese. While countries like South Korea and Japan already do not like China, the coronavirus has made things worse. Citizens have been calling on politicians to close borders with China and refuse an entry from people that have visited China. China itself has faced internal issues, with citizens of Hong Kong calling for closing borders and neighboring provinces to Wuhan wanting to close the borders as well. 

People have this fear that each new disease will be the next black plague. But they’re wrong: we now have more sophisticated forms of medicine and science than ever before. China has also not merely sweeped it under the rug, but have been working to combat the disease. The World Health Organization has also been working tirelessly to help prevent any more deaths from the coronavirus. There are actual people that are trying to help and stop the disease, not just race-bait and cause scenes because they are already racist, but feel they can be open about it now. Death is not an excuse for your racism, and it never will be.