Social Problem Essay: Analyzing Public Response to COVID-19 in Canada

This essay examines the public's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada through the lens of Helene Joffe's theory on public apprehension of emerging infectious diseases. The essay begins by summarizing Joffe's argument, which identifies a pattern of distancing, blame, and stigma in public responses to outbreaks. It then analyzes the Canadian context, arguing that the public's reaction to COVID-19 aligns with this pattern. The essay highlights how the media's coverage of the outbreak, particularly the initial focus on China, contributed to the distancing, blaming, and stigmatizing of certain groups. It points out how the virus was initially associated with China and how this led to criticism of Chinese people's food habits. The essay also notes that despite the fact that the initial cases in Canada were from other countries, the blame was disproportionately focused on Chinese people. The essay concludes that the public's response to COVID-19 in Canada validates Joffe's framework, demonstrating the prevalence of distancing, blame, and stigma in times of crisis.

Running head: SOCIAL PROBLEM ESSAY
Social Problem Essay
Student’s name
University
Author’s note

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SOCIAL PROBLEM ESSAY
In the article “Public apprehension of emerging infectious diseases: are changes afoot?”
Joffe talks at length regarding the problematic pattern as observed in public behaviour during the
outbreak of a pandemic. She notes that despite the advancement of the medical science and
technology, there were several instances of outbreak of emerging infectious diseases (EID) in the
last few decades. The Swine flu outbreak, followed by the spread and aftermath of Bird flu,
Ebola, SARS, MRSA, AIDS and Tuberculosis, has somewhat crushed the human hope and
contentment regarding the attacks of EIDs despite having the vaccines and antibiotics handy. The
author describes EIDs as an interesting sub-set of health risks on the grounds of its capacity to
affect public engagement and media material considerably (Joffe 2011). She notes that just as the
EIDs have the capacity to spread across the national boundaries due to public movement and
transfer of foodstuffs and other commodities, the media material also transforms from a regional
or local material quickly to a global one, as the news of the EIDs become global. However, the
focus of Joffe’s article is not concerned with unique the nature of EIDs or their pattern of
spreading. Neither is it particularly concerned with the media’s role or activities in spreading the
news. Rather, it develops a framework to identify a global pattern in public attitude that rise
subsequently, following the onset and spread of such EIDs. What is more interesting in this
regard is that the universality of the pattern. To elucidate, the behavioural or attitude pattern that
Joffe talks about, is not exclusive to any one of the pandemic outbreak, rather it emerges and
persists during all such outbreak of EIDs. And more interestingly, even after years of the
publication of the article, we can still observe its relevance in the context of the public attitude
and behavioural pattern during the latest Covid-19 pandemic.
Joffe argues that “a specific pattern characterises the content of public responses to EID”
(Joffe, 2011, p.447), which she demonstrates as “distancing-blame-stigma” pattern. Moreover,

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she notes that the media often plays an “inflammatory role” in developing this pattern by
heightening the anticipation even during the absence of the disease in a particular region, as well
as dramatizing the scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. Followed by the media
representation and reassurance, there was a trend to disengage oneself from the disease among
public. The Ebola for white British people was “African”, while Bird Flu was “Chinese” for
Hong Kong women. (Joffe, 2011) As Joffe et al. (2011) investigated the spread of MRSA among
the British people, mostly affected by the virus, the social representation of the disease surfaced
as “hospital virus” essentially spread by the foreigner nurses and cleaners attending in the
hospital, affirming the blame on immigrant workers. The British people, apparently the most
affected by the virus, were neither blamed nor stigmatized for the contraction.
The argument is still relevant in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic as well. A keen
observation on the social representation of the coronavirus across the world confirms the public
attitude of distancing-blaming-stigmatizing the issue as initiated by China. “The Chinese virus”
as Covid-19 is known to a vast population in Canada, indicates the public attitude that the blame,
by and large, is posited on Chinese people for the outbreak. The Canadian media nonetheless,
has an instrumental role in spreading the news of the outbreak in Wuhan province of China
within days of its onset, which was followed by the reporting of strict lockdown and stringent
actions taken in the region. As the disease started to spread across the globe, the general public
attitude and rhetoric was set to identify the disease as something started of Chinese people.
Subsequently, news items on the Wuhan fish market, which was purportedly identified as the
epicentre of the EID initiated a global criticism and blame game regarding the food habit and
preferences of Chinese people, turning them into a marginalized group in respect to the rest of
the world (PostmediaInc, 2020). The marginalization is even more apparent through sporadic

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cases of stigmatizing of people with Mongoloid features in Canada, identifying them as Chinese
irrespective of their origin and accusing them of spreading the virus across the world (Heng,
2020) However, the initial contraction of the disease in Canada was acquired by foreign citizens,
visiting mostly from European countries or by Canadian citizens themselves who were working
or in vacation in those countries (Reuters, 2020). However, little to no blame was put on these
people for such a massive outbreak. Rather, there is a conscious attitude of distancing, blaming
and stigmatizing which is apparent in the public attitude all over the world, identifying the EID
with China instead. Thus, the pattern Joffe identifies in her article is very much relevant in the
Canadian context as well.

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References
Heng, L. (2020). Chinese Canadians facing hate, racism for coronavirus outbreak — much like
the SARS outbreak in 2003. Retrieved 17 April 2020, from
https://nationalpost.com/news/chinese-canadians-facing-hate-racism-for-coronavirus-
outbreak-much-like-the-sars-outbreak-in-2003
Joffe, H. (2011). Public apprehension of emerging infectious diseases: are changes afoot?. Public
Understanding of Science, 20(4), 446-460.
Joffe, H., Washer, P., & Solberg, C. (2011). Public engagement with emerging infectious
disease: The case of MRSA in Britain. Psychology & Health, 26(6), 667-683.
PostmediaInc. (2020). The birth of a pandemic: How COVID-19 went from Wuhan to Toronto.
National Post. Retrieved 17 April 2020, from https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/the-
birth-of-a-pandemic-how-covid-19-went-from-wuhan-to-toronto?video_autoplay=true
Reuters. (2020). Canada reports first coronavirus death as number of infected climbs. Retrieved
17 April 2020, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-
news/canada-reports-first-coronavirus-death-as-number-of-infected-climbs/articleshow/
74560715.cms?from=mdr

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