In Wuhan—a city once called “the Chicago of China”— about 11 million everyday people are trapped at the epicenter of the outbreak of the coronavirus that has now killed 259 and infected over 11,000 people in China alone.
And even though the government is assuring its citizens that they have the outbreak under control, the shut-down of public transportation and strict travel bans are generating unease and even terror among those citizens being kept in the dark. But while the Chinese people mourn their dead, the rest of the world makes jokes at their expense on Twitter.
But while the Chinese people mourn their dead, the rest of the world makes jokes at their expense on Twitter.
As of publication, the numbers reported indicate that about 3.3 percent of those who have contracted the coronavirus in China have died from it. In other words, for every group of 100 people who catch the coronavirus in China, three of them will not survive.
Sadly, many of those at risk of contracting the coronavirus are children.
Sadly, many of those at risk of contracting the coronavirus are children. While China’s secrecy makes it difficult to perfectly estimate the number of children in Wuhan, national statistics indicate that children under the age of 15 make up 17.22 percent of the population, making it very safe to say that the number of children in Wuhan alone is probably greater than 1.5 million. Early reports on the coronavirus indicate that a 9-month-old infant is one of the youngest patients to have contracted the virus so far. Now with travel bans, these 1.5 million children are living in an environment some healthcare professionals have equated to a Petri dish, all for the sake of containing the virus and preserving the safety of others—including our own.
These 1.5 million children are living in an environment some healthcare professionals have equated to a Petri dish, and all for the sake of containing the virus and preserving the safety of others—including our own.
Nevertheless, social media is still full of one-liner’s, memes, and videos that are rarely more well thought-out (and not any more sensitive) than the AIDS jokes my classmates used to make in middle school. But theses jokes aren’t coming from children or that one racist relative that you’re friends with on Facebook (although they’ve been sharing them, too). They’re coming from the mouths of college-educated adults and professionals. One such tweet accompanied a photo of a young man praying and read that the poster was hoping that their romantic rival would contract the coronavirus. It has since been shared more than 61,000 times.
One Tweet accompanied a photo of a young man praying and read that the poster was hoping that their romantic rival would contract the coronavirus and has since been shared more than 61,000 times.
Insensitivity on the internet in the wake of a tragedy is nothing new. The glass screen of a device acts as a barrier of separation between the person posting online and the outside world they may actually be commentating on. But there are more than just technological barriers of separation at work here. These kinds of insensitive posts also rely on further barriers of separation: geographic distance, personal privilege, miseducation, and (at its worst) racism. It is important to remember, however, that the people of Wuhan cannot separate themselves from this outbreak. They are at the epicenter of it all, and banned from leaving.
Insensitivity on the internet in the wake of a tragedy is nothing new.
With tens of millions of people on lock-down and millions of children at risk of contracting the virus—which has officially spread to every region of China and still has no cure or vaccine—it should be enough to give us pause: Are we as human beings comfortable appropriating someone else’s tragedy in exchange for our own ‘likes’?
Are we as human beings comfortable appropriating someone else’s tragedy in exchange for our own ‘likes’?
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to chat with a colleague of mine who grew up in China. They reminded me that after the Paris terror attacks in 2015, many social media users offered their thoughts and prayers to France, with many even “chang[ing] their profile picture to [the] France flag.” In contrast, there is very little support on social media for those suffering from the coronavirus. That’s pretty typical, my colleague told me. When it comes to the people of Wuhan, there are still “No prayers.”
When it comes to the people of Wuhan, there are still “No prayers.”
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