But the coronavirus has spread something else besides misinformation and false rumors: xenophobia and anti-China sentiment. “Feeling good about the light fear people have had of me in public all week,” campus alum Michelle Lee wrote sarcastically in a tweet. Public health fears are easily projected on racial groups or other marginalized communities, said Gee, the UCLA professor. In the early 1930s, Los Angeles County and California public health officials submitted a resolution to Congress recommending a mass deportation of Filipinos. They argued that high rates of tuberculosis among Filipinos overburdened public health infrastructure.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 03, 2020 12:56 UTC