Any stigma, as the old saying is, will serve to beat a dogma.
– Philip Guedalla, English barrister
Don’t go there! Don’t meet the family of so and so, or their friends.
On the face of it, this seems to be an understandable and reasonable response concerning people or their close contacts who have the Covid-19 virus.
After all, I am sure no sane person would want to deliberately get infected by this or any other virus.
However, perhaps we need to re-evaluate our instinctive and immediate responses when we are commenting or judging people who have contracted the virus.
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered stigma issues in our community.
The Oxford dictionary defines stigma as “a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.”
Stigma includes negative attitudes or discrimination by the public against someone or a group based on certain distinguishing characteristics such as a mental illness, health condition, or disability.
When a person is branded as Covid-19 positive, somehow, they are no longer categorised as a normal person but as part of a particular stereotyped group.
Therefore, this type of stigmatisation tends to disgrace a person having Covid-19 and anyone connected to them.
The stigmatisation and negative beliefs can lead to prejudicial actions and discrimination.
In years past, several diseases had names such as the ‘Egyptian plague”, “Spanish flu”, “Asian flu” and “Hong Kong flu” – all with connotations of race and nationality.
For that reason, it is important to note that the name for the disease was deliberately chosen to prevent stigmatisation.
Remember that this is not a “Wuhan Virus”, “Chinese Virus” or “Asian Virus”.
Covid-19, the “Co” stands for Corona, “vi” for virus and “d” for disease and “19” is because the disease appeared in 2019.
This was done to prevent attaching locations or ethnicity to the disease.
So, what is the impact of stigmatisation?
Amongst a wide variety of experiences, stigma can bring on feelings of shame, blame, hopelessness, distress, secrecy, loneliness, isolation and social exclusion, stereotyping, derogatory labels and being treated differently than the rest of society.
Stigmatisation could even make people hide their symptoms and illness to avoid being blamed.
Perhaps this is why some people who might suspect they have the symptoms, do not seek help and go into denial.
We must do all we can to help remove elements of stigmatisations for people with Covid-19 or those associated with them.
I came across some Do’s and Don’ts that can help us shift our mindset:
DO talk about “people who have Covid-19”, “people who are being treated for Covid-19”, “people who are recovering from Covid-19” or “people who died after contracting Covid-19”.
DON’T refer to people with the disease as “Covid-19 cases” or “victims”.
DO talk about “people who may have Covid-19” or “people who are presumptive for Covid-19”.
DON’T talk about “Covid-19 suspects” or “suspected cases”.
DO talk about people “acquiring” or “contracting” Covid-19.
DON’T talk about people “transmitting Covid-19” “infecting others” or “spreading the virus” as it implies intentional transmission and assigns blame.
DO speak accurately about the risk from Covid-19, based on scientific data and latest official health advice.
The logic stated behind these Don’ts is that, the use of criminalising or dehumanising terminology is said to create the impression that those with the disease have somehow done something wrong or are less human than the rest of us.
This feeds the stigma, thereby undermining empathy, and potentially fuelling wider reluctance to seek treatment or attend a screening, testing and quarantine.
After going through the above Do’s and Don’ts, I had to rewire my mindset and rewrite several passages in this column.
Let us collectively work towards an improved approach in our thoughts, our words and attitudes those who have contracted the Covid-19 virus and those associated with them.
This can also be done by spreading only correct and factual information.
There is always a strong desire on our part to find out details of people who have been infected.
This can lead to a frenzy of social media speculation that ends up being mostly untrue.
However, in the meantime, people and businesses get negatively impacted by viral and speculative wrong news.
Here we need some help from the authorities to provide a balance between more transparency in information and also the right to privacy.
The traditional distrust of news emanating from the government must be mitigated to decrease the trust deficit.
In the meantime, let us continue playing our part in being vigilant and take all the well-advertised precautions.
Once again, let us all support each other and keep ourselves safe to keep others safe.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
