Thursday, October 9, 2014

CNN

The Ebola Panic and Racism
By Robin Wright 
 The tragedy of Ebola is not just its staggering toll. It's also the implicit racism that the deadly virus has spawned. The anecdotes are sickening, particularly a Reuters report this week that children of African immigrants in Dallas -- little ones with no connection to Thomas Duncan, the Liberian Ebola patient who died Wednesday in a local hospital -- have been branded "Ebola kids" simply because of their heritage or skin color.

In both the United States and Europe, Ebola is increasing racial profiling and reviving imagery of the "Dark Continent." The disease is persistently portrayed as West African, or African, or from countries in a part of the world that is racially black, even though nothing medically differentiates the vulnerability of any race to Ebola.

Newsweek cover last month showed a picture of a chimpanzee with the headline: "A Back Door for Ebola: Smuggled Bushmeat Could Spark a U.S. Epidemic." Whatever the intent, the picture was wrong.

Turns out the story was probably wrong, too, as a Washington Post investigation revealed. The new Ebola outbreak "likely had nothing to do with bushmeat consumption," the Post reported, and there is no conclusive evidence that Ebola has been passed from animals to humans. A theory on animal-to-human transmission with some limited traction centers on dead fruit bats, not chimps.

"There is virtually no chance that 'bushmeat' smuggling could bring Ebola to America," the Post concluded.

But the damage has been done. And as panic deepens, the danger is that racism -- on planes and public transportation, in lines, on streets, in glances -- deepens further, too.

Ebola is a human tragedy, just like enterovirus D68, which causes sudden muscle weakness and severe respiratory problems, particularly among children. It has shown up in almost all the 50 states, with about 500 Americans infected so far, far more than ever. And it has begun to kill,beginning with a 4-year-old boy in New Jersey. Five new cases were reported in New Jersey alone on Tuesday. And there are no antiviral vaccines or cures. Yet enterovirus D68 is known by a scientific name and number. (Unfortunately for Africans, the Ebola virus was named after the Congolese river where the first outbreak was detected).

The saga of Thomas Duncan reflects racial perceptions. His girlfriend, Louise, whom he had reportedly been visiting in Dallas, had publicly begged for him to be given the same experimental ZMapp medication given to two (white) American missionaries who were infected in Africa and recently flown back to the United States.

"I'm just asking God and asking the American government for the same medicine they're giving people that come from Liberia," she said during an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Please, please, please, please, help me save his life. ...Talk to doctors. They'll find means to get a medicine to cure him. He's so young."

Louise refused to allow her last name to be used for fear of repercussions. Unfortunately, doctors and the pharmaceutical developer said there was no longer any ZMapp left for Duncan or any other victim. But the imagery that accompanied his plight lingers: Whites can be flown to the United States or Europe at any expense, while Africans are left to die unattended on the streets of Liberia or Sierra Leone. Or now, without ZMapp, in Dallas.

"It's easy for the world -- the powerful world, who are largely non-African, non-people of color -- to ignore the suffering of poor, black people," Harvard Medical School professor Joia Mukherjee said on PRI's "The World" last month. It's easy, she said, to "other-ize" the Ebola crisis.

Fear too often contorts morality and humanity.

4 comments:

  1. Mrs. Robin,

    I'm not sure that Ebola has spawned racial profiling...maybe geographical profiling? To say that Thomas Duncan was racially discriminated against is an insult to the medical professionals that risked their lives to save him.

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  2. Racism or is it as simple as there were just no more doses of the highly experimental vaccine left? Why does everything have to come back to race?

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  3. This blog post/article is very misguided and extremely misinformed particularly about viruses.

    " Whites can be flown to the United States or Europe at any expense, while Africans are left to die unattended on the streets of Liberia or Sierra Leone. Or now, without ZMapp, in Dallas."
    It really wasn't that "whites" were flown anywhere and that Africans were left unattended to die. To portray it that way is disingenuous to everyone concerned about the Ebola outbreak. It's more accurate to say that individuals who volunteered their services to care for others infected with an incredibly deadly virus were flown back to their home country for treatment. Supportive treatment might be incredibly helpful in improving survival odds and this treatment is much better in the US or Europe. In case you’ve been in a bubble for the past few months, there are lots of folks still volunteering to treat sick people of these nations with rapidly dwindling supplies; I’m not sure I would characterize that as people being left unattended to die. What’s more, it seems you are forgetting (or intentionally omitting) the deep distrust of government and health workers in these nations. ZMapp is out of stock apparently. Biotech companies can’t just push a button on a vending machine- these things take time to make. But I understand that you are less interested in presenting things fairly than you are in getting people in a kerfuffle about racism. (Make no mistake, there are populations of low, no good people who think this way but your writing make it seem like the majority of people do. That’s wrong).

    “….publicly begged for him to be given the same experimental ZMapp medication given to two (white) American missionaries who were infected in Africa and recently flown back to the United States….”
    Why the “(white)” insertion? Are you saying that if these missionaries were African-American, Latino, or Asian the US would have said ‘eh, nah. Stay there”? Why not just say things instead of beating around the bush….

    “Ebola is a human tragedy, just like enterovirus D68, which causes sudden muscle weakness and severe respiratory problems, particularly among children.”
    We’re not even sure that EDV68 is the cause of the AFP you’re talking about. It’s a respiratory virus and while some children get severely ill and die, not all do. In fact a number of respiratory viruses do kill infants and toddlers (RSV, rotavirus, influenza virus). But please, don’t compare EDV-68 and Zaire ebolavirus. Speaking of…..

    “Yet enterovirus D68 is known by a scientific name and number. (Unfortunately for Africans, the Ebola virus was named after the Congolese river where the first outbreak was detected).”
    But Ebolavirus is a scientific name. This outbreak is cause by Zaire ebolavirus (as opposed to the Reston ebolavirus strain which was discovered in the US but doesn’t really infect humans). Enterovirus D68 has been circulating since the 1960s. It’s not new and the implication of this paragraph is that EDV68 was named in a non-racially motivated way, while Ebolaviruses are named racially. I think geographically (as the commenter above noted) is more accurate. But if you feel so inclined to disagree, I will be looking forward to your characterization of racism/bigotry about La Crosse virus (discovered in Wisconsin), Marburg (a similar virus to Ebola, discovered in Germany), and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I await….but until then, please take all naming issue up with the ICTV.





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  4. The author obviously never bothered to speak to a virologist about Ebola, talk to the manufacturer about why there is no ZMapp, and ignores the fact that Louise's name is easily found all over the internet - the same Louise who refused to quarantine herself and her family when first told to do so.

    Whatever mistakes were made on Mr. Duncan's first visit, sending him out without an evaluation was not one of them. The hospital, after the accusations of racism, issued a statement that Mr. Duncan was in the ER for four hours and received numerous tests. During his treatment, an entire 24 bed intensive care unit was devoted to him.

    Mr. Duncan died because he had a terrible disease, not because he was black or African.

    Very poor journalism, Ms. Wright. A middle school student would be expected to do better research than you did.

    I agree with Jeremy and jcphd.

    The people who risked their lives to take care of Mr. Duncan deserve better than this.

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