The xenophobia virus and the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The text addresses the risks involving xenophobia against the Chinese on the internet, and social networks, from the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to demonstrating how irrational this manifestation is, especially the idea of virus creation in a laboratory. For this purpose, historical examples of how xenophobic prejudice is meaningless and have damaged humanity's trajectory in all world regions are addressed. Finally, I warn about the need to use science to confront the new coronavirus and abandon conspiracy theories.

Introduction

There is a virus, which is not new, potentiating the effects of the pandemic of the new coronavirus, the infectious agent of xenophobia [1]. In the USA, the President refers to the “Chinese virus”; in Brazil, the President's son is even more explicit in pointing out the virus as the work of the “Chinese communist regime”. Still in Brazil, the Minister of Education accuses and ridicules the Chinese in the middle of a pandemic, suggesting that the pandemic would be a plan to dominate the world without any challenge from other sectors of the government. All of this duly disseminated through social networks by angry followers [2], who are eager to blame someone for the scourge that plagues humanity.

Xenophobia is a recurring worldwide problem; it occurs in waves in several countries and the results have always been devastating. Violence, prejudice, disrespect for others mark it. Cultural differences and cultural boundaries have always existed, and often generate tension and hostility at those boundaries. One can define xenophobia by hostility to the other, but it is a generalist definition, and the phenomenon is polymorphic and difficult to conceptualize [3].

Xenophobia emerges in different ways and against different peoples and cultures. Europe has experienced Western citizens’ movements in relation to Eastern peoples within the European Union itself [4]; the “Brexit” (leaving the United Kingdom from the European Union) is partly due to xenophobic speech [5]. This European face can also manifest itself against religion, as against the Jews, for example, that historically culminated in the holocaust [6], and strongly, recently, against those who profess Islam [7].

However, the phenomenon is not exclusively European. The last American election brought up the theme of xenophobia, notably against Latin Americans and Islamists, with the motto of building an impassable wall on the border with Mexico, with a victory of such speech [8]. Nevertheless, is it a typical western manifestation? The answer is no. China itself experiences this at different scales, in various ways, against the Japanese, for instance [9]. Recently, in Singapore, the phenomenon has taken on other faces, against the so-called “foreign talent” that arrive in the country, with online threats [10].

Xenophobia and COVID-19

Therefore, xenophobia is not local, it is not new, but the dramatic situation of the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to emerge grudges. Grudge against the Chinese political regime, and also in relation to its economic strength [11], instead of considering its technology, its social cohesion, it became easier to blame the origin, as if it were intentional. The new coronavirus has enabled revenge for our weaknesses against Chinese economic success via social media, which has been happening in several countries [12], [13]. It is clear that the Chinese government's aggressive commercial actions [14], especially in countries with a weaker economy, they help fuel this online environment.

This occurs in a world that depends on international trade, which xenophobia will benefit if relations are strained with the second economy of the world, which in the probable near future will be the first [15]? Many countries have China as their main trading partner, not to mention that this country is the largest supplier of hospital products on the planet. Prejudice will only complicate this relationship, and it is very unwise to create friction, especially in this challenging moment in history.

The hypothesis that China produced the virus and spread it as part of a macabre architected plan widespread in the xenophobic social network crusade is totally irrational. It is something worthy of a science fiction B film but experienced today widely on the internet, with millions and millions of unsuspecting followers and disseminators. It is illogical to imagine the Chinese government producing a killer virus, launching into one of its most important industrial areas, blocking millions and millions of quarantined people and the economy of the region, generating incalculable damage, causing tens of thousands of infections and a few thousand dead [16]. All this envisioning that in the end, this evil government would triumph over other peoples, completely inopportune and absurd.

Nevertheless, China will recover sooner, it is true, but the drama started there earlier, it is likely that the Chinese were wrong not to alert the world as soon as possible, but we also made mistakes in not preparing ourselves from what we saw in their experience. Other countries cannot say that they did not know that there was an imminent risk for humanity, several warnings were given in January 2020 and are still being given today, and governments have still continued to ignore it, such as those in Brazil, Nicaragua, Belarus and Turkmenistan, which in April 2020 still ignore it [17].

We must hope that China does recover quickly and helps the rest of the planet recover from the economic depression that lies ahead. However, what about the role of authoritarianism in the relative success in combating dissemination? It may be, but the social cohesion of the Asian people was important, as in other Asian countries. Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and even China have used and are using technology for detection and tracking; we must learn from our mistakes and successes and those of others, too, whatever. The epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and 2003, and the errors that occurred in facing it in China and throughout Asia, prepared them better for this current crisis [18]. It is learning; this is the way for the current confrontation, not finding imaginary guilty.

Xenophobia, diseases, and history

When we think about learning, perhaps we should keep in mind that the past successes and mistakes can be the way to face the current challenge. One can search for emblematic cases in history, which perhaps the negationists embedded on the internet can understand. There is no way to deny the impact of AIDS on humanity. Although we know that the disease's origin was in the African continent [19], was it the Africans fault? The answer must be emphatic: no! The disease passed to humans in accidental contact with monkeys [20]. Perhaps this example is not enough to convince, perhaps malaria, our greatest historic scourge, can. It is impossible to calculate how many it killed; its origin seems complicated. However, it is possible to trace that we also received from the great primates [21] through a mosquito, the deadliest form of Plasmodium. Did any Chinese, or European, or African, or any other part of the world plan this? Of course not, just as the Ebola virus was not.

I must be careful because if I present African examples, the angry and irrational hosts of the internet can turn their weapons of defamation against Africans and spread that a possible witch doctor's spell must have created these diseases. The worst, there will be those who will believe. So we need to look for more examples from other parts of the world.

It is difficult to think of a greater scourge for the individual than cancer, a type of neoplasm related to a virus was identified in Japan in the late 20th century, called Adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) [22]. Would it make sense to call cancer of the Japanese virus? And attribute it to a Japanese commercial strategy? Of course not. To continue among the famous Japanese cordials, since the 19th century, they are pointed out as the origin of viral encephalitis that spread around the world, and viral xenophobia did not make sense at the time for obvious reasons. However, it was still a mistake in the origin because studies later showed that the real origin must have been Indonesia-Malaysia [23].

So we could conclude that these new viruses are always of African or Asian origin. Shall we label them then? Big mistake. A severe human neuropathogenic virus was detected in 1999 in New York. How about calling it the Big Apple virus? Nothing like that. Later studies have shown that a West Nile virus (WN) would be native in the wild in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, having already caused epidemics in several parts of the world [24]. Whom are we going to be xenophobic against? Who knows the birds’ fault, reservoirs of this virus. Is it rational to look for the culprits?

Perhaps, resorting to history again may shed light on insanity on social media, but the problem is that history, logic, and analysis is not the strength of this mob; unfounded conspiracy theories are more successful in this medium. Probably the greatest scourge in history was the black or bubonic plague, difficult to think of anything more dramatic, which killed a huge percentage of the population in a few years at the time, in the 14th century, estimates vary, but always almost unbelievable [25].

Fortunately, the stupidity did not spread as quickly as it does today, but unfortunately, humanity was not immune to the xenophobia virus, even in a pandemic caused by bacteria. Our sad capacity to blame someone in a period of crisis has already occurred, and prejudice has turned to those who were not under the guardianship of the Roman Christian religion, the result of which is a persecution of Jews, attributing to them the plague [26]. Needless to say, the result of this type of prejudice in the 20th century, but perhaps it is better to say that this type of insanity perpetuated until the 20th century, with the Nazi holocaust, which really happened. It seems ridiculous to have to say this, but let us not forget that there are groups on the internet that preach that the massacre of Jews in the second war never occurred [27], unbelievable? I agree. It would be like saying that the land is flat in the 21st century, my flawed act. Some groups believe in this other absurdity on the internet; conspiracy theories and stupidity have no limit [28].

Returning to the Black Death, it is necessarily better to illustrate the harmful effect of prejudice and xenophobia. In 1348, the plague was approaching the German empire (a coincidence with the Nazi holocaust?). The authorities and even religious people believed or stimulated unfounded rumors that the Jews had poisoned the water sources to contaminate the Christians. Torture quickly generated confessions by Jews, and persecution exploded in more than three hundred communities, thousands were burned to death, and their wealth was plundered. Bloggers and the like, this is very well documented in cities like Strasbourg, of course, it makes little difference to you. The general population participates in this massacre and theft, the few survivors flee and for centuries they could not return to Germany [29]. Xenophobia, collective idiocy, and prejudice have lasting macabre effects.

Moreover, it is important to remind hate disseminators on the internet that blaming Jews, being xenophobic, the population, the dominant religion and the Middle Ages’ German authorities have had not effected the pandemic. Nothing. The black plague slaughtered everyone, the plague passed, but the prejudice remained. The rats, their fleas and their bacteria continued their ravaging march [30], only the Jews suffered more, and ignorance triumphed, not against disease, but against a minority. Blaming the Jews did not help at all; it only made the scourge worse, just as blaming the Chinese will not mitigate or resolve anything about the pandemic.

However, Fake News disseminating groups, in their irrational desire to spread hatred, could say that these examples belong to the past, that they have nothing to do with our reality because here it was the fault of a sinister Chinese laboratory. It was sinister, yes, but it was not a laboratory; most likely, it was an ecologically and humanly deplorable wild animal market [31].

Brazil, diseases, and blame

The hordes of Brazilian social networks will say that it always comes from outside, that diseases, pandemics, come from obscure corners of the world to dominate and steal Brazil, its Amazon rainforest, or its agriculture or minerals, disconnecting from reality. Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika, typically Brazilian scourges, how to explain them? Nature stuff? However, the Zika virus was discovered in Africa [32], so are we going to blame the Africans? Perhaps blame someone is more manageable than cleaning our backyards, fighting the Aedes aegypti mosquito and not assuming our responsibility in these epidemics that kill Brazilians every year [33].

Another scourge that emerges from time to time in Brazil is yellow fever; its origin is uncertain; there are reports from the 15th and 16th centuries [34], so once again, blaming someone is counterproductive. We have a vaccine; we know the transmitter to fight it, but stupidity reigns. Monkey deaths are an important indicator of the presence of the serious disease, but what have some unwary Brazilians done? They spread the rumor that monkeys are to blame. As a result, they started killing monkeys in Brazil. It is needless to say how irrational this attitude is; in addition to being cruel and ecologically condemnable, it hinders the disease's control, as we have lost the reference to its emergence. And so the disease continued to kill people [35]; there is no point in blaming the monkeys; it is much better to face the disease with science and rational attitudes, such as vaccination, for example.

From where I write, the spread on the internet that the Chinese are guilty is intense, as if the disease appearance had to be intentional. However, we forget that Brazil and its forests, a heritage that fills everyone with pride, are also possible sources of emerging diseases in the future, fiction? Would we have to have a sophisticated laboratory, as it is related to what happened in China? The production was intentional in the fictional Chinese laboratory, but when the source is the largest rainforest globally, isn’t it? The past shows us, it has already happened, but luckily for us (and for the whole planet), it was not an infectious agent with easy transmission like the new coronavirus.

We can speak of Oropouche Fever, a virus discovered in forest workers in Trinidad in the middle of the 20th century and transmissible through mosquito bites. The first record in Brazil is from 1960; there were several subsequent epidemic outbreaks in this country's states. In the state of Pará, also in Brazil, in 1961, the virus showed its epidemic potential, with 11,000 people infected. In order to have an idea of the scope of the disease, an estimated 500,000 cases have been estimated in the last decades, in different countries such as Panama, Trinidad, Peru and Brazil, demonstrating to be a potential health problem in tropical regions of South America and Central [36]. Thankfully, the internet and support for conspiracy theories are recent, because otherwise, there would be groups articulating the guilt of the indigenous people, who with their shamans, healers, should be producing viruses in the jungle, would be more insanity in the face of viruses that evolve in the forest and that man gets infected when he enters it.

The Oropouche virus is not alone in its origin in the forest; they are phenomena of nature and the viruses’ evolution in their hosts. There are others, such as the Mayaro virus and the Rocio virus, for example. The first, another viral disease, transmitted by mosquitoes and recurrent in tropical South America. It does not tend to be fatal, but its set of symptoms is intense and its joint pain can last for months, and can be quite disabling [37]. The Rocio virus was also discovered in Brazil, related to the entry of man into the forest and contact with mosquitoes, which were contaminated by reservoir birds, causing encephalitis and various disorders, which can be fatal or leave serious sequelae, such as sensory, motor problems, incontinence urinary and memory loss [38]. Viruses that cause serious diseases originating in Brazil have not been created by anyone, without culprits, except for a possible inappropriate way of dealing with the environment.

The problem with presenting examples of the forest is that the recurring irrationality on social networks may suggest that it would be best to destroy the forest, as it would be the source of disease, with its mosquitoes and reservoir birds. It should be dispensable to talk about the Brazilian forests’ incalculable value, but it is good not to underestimate the level of bestiality on the internet. Another virus, the Sabiá, shows that it is not only the forest that is a possible source of new diseases. There is a report of death from this hemorrhagic fever on a farm in the interior of São Paulo State, far from the Amazon. The host is a wild rat, possibly spreading the virus through urine [39]. Did the Chinese try to affect the pungent Brazilian agribusiness? Ridiculous that hypothesis? However, producing a virus and spreading it to the population is also, and that is what we are dealing with today.

The phenomenon of the emergence of diseases is global, old, and recurring. It happens, and it will happen; the animals in which these viruses (or bacteria) evolved are there; every time we contact them inadvertently, we will be at risk. The list is long of bacterial and viral infections of origin in animals, the number of pathogens is growing, bringing new diseases with varying severity, through various vectors and diverse epidemiology [40]. Blaming a people, a nation, will not mitigate these new epidemics at all; it will only generate more suffering, as exemplified here, and possibly complicate investigations and the search for the true origin and potential treatments or prevention.

We could then assume that there are no culprits for the emergence or resurgence of serious illnesses, but even that is not entirely true. A good (evil) example that deserves to be blamed also comes from the obscure depths of the internet, powered by social networks [41]. The anti-vaccine movement should be blamed for the resurgence of diseases around the world [42]. Probably the loudest and most far-reaching movement is the opposite of the measles vaccine, but it is not the only one. In an article in the prestigious Journal The Lancet, this phenomenon has an origin of scientific appearance, which pointed out the relationship between the vaccine and the manifestation of autism [43]. Despite the discovery of fraud in the article and the journal's retraction, the damage was already done. Since then, artists and all kinds of instant Internet celebrities have conspiracy theories about vaccine and autism. As a result, many stopped vaccinating their children and the serious measles disease, eradicated in many countries, resurfaces: Brazil and the United States experience this fruit of irrationality [44].

Returning to the history of pandemics, having named the great 1918 flu pandemic as Spanish, probably one more false information [45] did not prevent the massacre at the time. We must forget about xenophobic nonsense and focus on a possible new relationship with nature. Science needs to study, analyze and discuss the potential risks of this inadvertent contact with other species, as must have happened in the case of COVID-19 [46]. The transfer could occur in several other countries in the world; many hunt and feed on wild animals. The pandemic must be a time to become humanity better and not an opportunity to foment hatred.

Disclosure of interest

The author declare that they have no competing interest.