Irony: Hate Crimes Surge Against Asian Americans While They Are On The Front Lines Fighting COVID-19
There have been a lot of encouraging stories about peoples’ acts of generosity and kindness during the COVID-19 crisis. Unfortunately, human nature has its bad side too and the crisis has brought out some of our worst qualities including xenophobia, racism and, in some cases, violence.
Hate crimes against Asian Americans and Asian immigrants in the United States have been surging. They have ranged from verbal harassment to denial of services to physical attacks. There is no way to know to what extent President Trump’s insistence on calling COVID-19 the “China Virus” may have motivated these acts, but his statement certainly didn’t help prevent them. It is true that the Chinese government acted abysmally, initially denying that the virus could be transmitted person to person. But China is hardly a democracy and the Chinese people were the victims rather than the perpetrators of this cover-up.
In fact, Asian Americans and Asian immigrants to the U.S. deserve our thanks for their role in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. First of all, they are vastly over-represented among the front line medical workers who are treating those who have been infected. Seventeen percent of doctors, 9% of physician assistants and nearly 10% of nurses in the United States are of Asian descent.
Asians and Asian Americans are also at the forefront of America’s efforts to find a vaccine. As of now, one of the most promising efforts has just been reported by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. On April 2nd, the University reported:
“Scientists today announced a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus.”
再看了一遍文章， 我有点不同意作者说的 "But China is hardly a democracy and the Chinese people were the victims rather than the perpetrators of this cover-up. " 我们说的华裔美国人， 他们首先应该是美国人，然后才是他们的族裔背景Chinese。怎么把他们称为Chinese呢？ 发生在中国的事情，怎么会和他们有关呢？
回复 'HBW' 的评论 : 当年闹艾滋病的时候， 如果我们身在美国， 当然是遇到白人或黑人医护人员的几率比遇到亚裔大的。 我估计在这种情况下，当年的亚裔病人多是不敢公开歧视医护人员的。 其实在美国亚裔感染coronavirus 的比率在各族裔中最低， 为什么见到亚裔就觉得倒霉呢？ 美国在二战时把日裔关到集中营，这被认为是种族歧视。The legislation admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."[31] The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion (equivalent to $3,460,000,000 in 2019) in reparations to 82,219 Japanese Americans who had been interned and their heirs.
