Wuhan coronavirus panic

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Bernard Rowan

Wuhan coronavirus panic

Posted : 2020-02-11 18:07

Updated : 2020-02-11 18:07

By Bernard Rowan

The Chinese people and the world remain gripped by panic about the Wuhan virus. A virulent strain of coronavirus, referring to the shape of the virus' molecules, the Wuhan virus has stricken tens of thousands and killed nearly a thousand so far. The overreaction outside China concerns me.

Wuhan is a major city in Hubei province, about 850 kilometers from Shanghai, and one of the world's most populous. The virus is believed to have originated from there; from people eating snake meat infected by the virus from snakes consuming bats. I think that's the best guess anyway.

In response, China has locked down cities, workers aren't working, and travel has dwindled, even during the famous and cherished New Year's holiday season. Many streets look ghostly. People wear breathing masks. Few go to restaurants. The race to create a vaccine continues. We should pray for success. I hope all concerned encourage China to show openness to foreign expertise, both in containing the spread of the virus and in researching a vaccine. Now isn't the time for superpower arrogance or defensiveness on any score.

The Wuhan virus is a serious health issue, surpassing SARS as a killer. All of us, including the young and elderly, need to take suitable precautions. We should learn the symptoms, contact our doctors should any symptoms arise, and of course, we shouldn't think of traveling to affected places. This is all standard for similar public health crises.

However, what grips many countries outside China concerns me. It reflects blindness to "the log in one's own eye." There is talk of closing airports to Chinese flights. Quarantines occur in various ports and places. Reasonable actions face people traveling from Wuhan. The same doesn't occur for other maladies. The world panics over this virus to a degree greater than greater health issues facing us.

China and the Chinese now firmly represent and act on a global scale. Chinese people travel everywhere. They enrich our world and add to the possibilities of human experience. We pay more attention to China because of jealousy, fear, and ignorance.

Cicero, in his famous work, "On the Commonwealth," uses the people's reaction to a solar eclipse as a metaphor for blindness. In the same way, many nations see Wuhan as coming to a place near us, fast and certain. We miss the death that's more likely in our eye.

In the United States, over two million people have contacted influenza. Over 8,000 have died! That dwarfs the Wuhan coronavirus at this point, and I'm not aware of anything like quarantines, travel bans, increased international travel and airport protocols. In the USA, the story looks like a footnote to the Wuhan virus. It's not viewed with the panic caused by the Wuhan virus. Fearmongers take to social media and spread hyperbole and fake information.

We should remember driving on highways kill far more. Deaths from guns, suicides, poor care of the infants and elderly, opioids, cancer and heart disease all kill more. We're taking these public health dangers too little to heart in our own places and spaces. Add in septicemia, diabetes, liver disease and strokes.

I read in The Korea Times that Koreans also face this issue. There has been progress with President Xi after the THAAD matter. Many Chinese visit Korea and Koreans visit China. There are some cases reported of Wuhan coronavirus in Korea and coronavirus in bats. The government considers what actions to take. As President Moon has signaled, South Korea will act with measured and reasonable precaution. The greater killers to panic over are well-known ― and they aren't the Wuhan coronavirus.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.

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