How discrimination due to the coronavirus can be damaging to a person’s physical health
Despite the shelter-in-place policies across the nation to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the number of discriminatory incidents remain on the rise. The related stress could have health impacts on those targeted, experts say.
Discriminatory acts related to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, accumulated more than 1,100 in two weeks of data collection, according to the STOP AAPI Hate online reporting center, a platform jointly created by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and the Chinese for Affirmative Action.
Results showed that Asian women are twice more prone to experience harassment compared to Asian men. More incidents have taken place in grocery stores, pharmacies and big box retail.
The report has several categories, including “barred from establishment,” “verbal harassment” and “workplace discrimination.” One under the “physical assault” category reads: “My kids were at the park with their dad (who is white). An older white man pushed my 7-year old daughter off of her bike and yelled at my husband to ‘take your hybrid kids home because they’re making everyone sick.’ ”
Social stressors, including microaggressions such as racial slurs, could weaken the immune system and make a person sick, said Gilbert Gee, community health sciences professor at University of California, Los Angeles, and an expert in health inequalities in immigrant populations.
Stress responses, or the fight-or-flight response created by the body when faced with danger in the environment, could start wearing down the body if it is used over and over, Gee said. This effect was seen in many minority groups such as African Americans, Latinos and Asians.
Gee recommended seeking help from family and friends as a good way to mitigate stress after encountering a discriminatory incident. They can help reinterpret the incident as prejudicial instead of personal, and provide reassurance to the target that he or she is not at fault, Gee said.
“People are generally reluctant to talk about these things,” Gee said. “Something as simple as validating helps.”
Gee has been studying the correlation between discrimination and chronic health conditions and illnesses for more than a decade. According to a nationwide study among Asian Americans published on the American Journal of Public Health, discrimination was significantly associated with cardiovascular conditions for Vietnamese and Chinese groups, as well as pain and respiratory conditions for Vietnamese and Filipinos. Another research published on the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry in 2018 showed that Chinese American seniors who reported experiencing racial discrimination had an almost twofold greater chance of suicide thoughts.
To combat discrimination is not just a civil rights issue, but also an important health issue, Gee said.
“In the context of COVID-19, it is possible that (someone) encountering discrimination may be more likely to be ill,” Gee said. “That could worsen the pandemic for everybody. People who’ve encountered discrimination make them less likely to see the doctor because they are just too afraid to get out, and that makes it worse for everybody.”
“The anti-Asian hate tied to public health has been with us for over 100 years,” said Kathy Ko Chin, president of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum. She cited the example of the Angel Island U.S. Immigration Station Hospital, a public hospital in San Francisco between 1910 and 1940 which had two entrances to segregate patients by race.
“What all of us can do is to share humanity and not to victimize Asians and other immigrants,” she said.
The APIAHF initiated a community library of crowdsourced in-language resources for COVID-19 with materials of preventive care instructions and explainers of shelter-in-place and house arrest policies are available in 35 Asian and Pacific Islander languages and Spanish.
A bystander training toolkit produced by Hollaback, an organization aimed at ending harassment, is also available online to provide practical tips on how to support the victim. Even to something as small as standing closer to the target could be helpful to draw attention away, Chin said. Bystander intervention virtual workshops jointly organized by Hollaback and the Asian American Advancing Justice are also available for registration through May. The hour-long, interactive training provides the five ways to intervene effectively as a bystander without compromising safety.
To report a discriminatory incident, file through the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center designed for COVID-19 related acts here. Available in ten languages, the platform was created to document incidents of COVID-19 discriminatory acts.
Help us cover your community through The Sacramento Bee’s partnership with Report For America. Contribute now to help fund Theodora Yu’s coverage of the Asian American community, and also to support a new reporter who will cover Latino issues.
Other resources to report and address hate
Asian American Advancing Justice tracker, accessible in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.
The Stop Hate hotline (844-9-NO-HATE), an initiative of the AAAJ and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to provide legal assistance to those impacted by hate.
A list of resources for AAPI workers compiled by the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, with information on worker relief funds and in-language resources.
