Dear James Bennet,

I was very interested in what happened with the coronavirus during the year 2020 and wanted to find a paper that could give me more insight. I stumbled across the article “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” in The New York Times and the authors were really able to help answer my questions. Chris Buckley, David D. Kirkpatrick, Amy Qin, and Javier C. Hernández wrote a very interesting article and the sequence of events that were written might have been a big shock to most readers. I, however, knew bits and pieces about the SARS epidemic and China’s role in the pandemic but needed clarity on how things unfolded. I believe “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” was informal but I also don’t think this piece is for everyone’s eyes.

Learning about what events had happened behind the pandemic, that scientists and laboratories forewarning about the virus but were ignored by China’s government did leave me confused on why. However, not everybody took what China did lightly. In fact, it set people into a rage, including former President Donald Trump. Very inappropriate and racial slurs were vocalized at the Asian community and I truly feel what was written in “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp”, the same news Trump received, is what began the anti-Asian hate crimes we’re seeing this year. I’ll explain.

Trump made an ignorant comment referring to the disease as the “China virus” and a bunch of more nasty remarks towards China. I’ve seen people around me say similar things, too. Do I believe China played a big part in the global pandemic? Yes. But do I think they deserve the horrible backlash they’ve received? No. I remember going to an Asian-based food restaurant (yea, I was still eating  Chinese food during the lockdown) and there was a sign on their window that read “Please don’t be afraid to order here We don’t have Corona” and I felt so much empathy towards them. Seeing small businesses lose money because people were saying nasty things like “Don’t order Chinese food because you’ll get COVID” or that they were afraid just made me feel bad.

I’m not saying by any means that your article caused people to react this way. But the way some people perceive the information from the article is awful and I don’t agree with it. Asian Americans were being physically attacked, spat on, told to “Go back to their country”. Things that African Americans and other minorities were fighting against, they ended up doing to Asian Americans here in the states as if they really caused this pandemic. The hate was just misdirected and caused a social problem. Asian Americans were used as scapegoats and blamed for the lack of communication between China’s government and ours.

I might be wrong but I think the authors of “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp”, Buckley, Kirkpatrick, Qin, and Hernández, added some details in there that maybe wasn’t appropriate to share with anybody who pretty much has internet access. And like my professor said, China’s citizens and people of Chinese descent did nothing wrong. They had no control of what their government was and was not doing. People in China, professors, scientists, and laboratories, were actually trying to persuade the government to let the world know of what was happening. I believe you and the authors had good intentions to illustrate what occurred but at the same time, the information this paper contained fueled a lot of hate. 

Sincerely, a reader,

– Isadora B.

 

Coronavirus placed a huge stress on people globally. It was so little what we were told and people should know the truth, especially if lives are in danger. “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” was an illuminative article and did fill in gaps that were missing. But, I wrote this letter because I wanted to tell everyone how I felt about the main article I wrote on and personally wanted to address the negative effects it may have on readers. Seeing people thrown under the bus for something they had no control over doesn’t sit right with me. I hope everyone can see how the two issues relate because racism is not okay regardless of where the anger and frustration stems from.