We’ll say it again; Stop using SARS-CoV2 as an excuse to be racist!

SARS-CoV2 is the virus that causes Covid-19; perhaps better known as the “Coronavirus”. Much like a noxious, parasitic weed, the Coronavirus has had both serious direct and indirect ramifications that have managed to worm roots into even the most remote of places across the globe. The direct consequences of course include those who have contracted either a mild or serious form of this virus and of course those who have since perished. The indirect consequences however appear to keep manifesting as the world adjusts to such a pandemic. Perhaps the most controversial consequence of Covid-19 is the racism and conspiracies directed toward China. Please, if you don’t want your racist or idiotic theories and claims debunked by science, I urge you to stop reading.

Now I’ll happily accept the opinions and beliefs of others, even if they differ from mine, as long as they are based on actual facts. For example: Vegans are using the coronavirus as another means of pushing for their cause. Pangolin coronaviruses show extreme similarities to SARS-CoV2 in the Receptor-Binding Genome (a spike protein that helps the virus to bind to cells), and therefore it is commonly accepted that pangolins were likely the origin of SARS-Cov2 (Zhang et al. 2020). Considering Pangolins, a long snouted, scaly mammal, are often used in Chinese Medicine, this claim is completely reasonable. An unreasonable claim? That China, the country in which SARS-CoV2 originated, is to blame for the pandemic and that all of its inhabitants must be ostracised from society. This lack of understanding has escalated to full blown racism, with people going as far as to call for a cease of trade between Australia and China, to “Make Australia Great Again” (Oh boy).

Racism towards those of Chinese descent has been an ongoing issue in Australian society. My entire life I have witnessed xenophobia towards Chinese-Australians; from the off comment to full blown out-spoken bullying. This is ridiculous considering that Chinese-born Australians have always made up a large percentile of the Australian population; from the 1901 Census where they were the 4th largest population, to the 2016 Census where they were the 3rd largest population (Parliament of Australia 2020). Despite a constant basal level of racism and misunderstanding, there has been a definite amplification amidst the coronavirus pandemic. There of course is the argument that SARS-CoV2 originated in Wuhan; a city in the Hubei Province of China (Wu et al. 2020), and therefore China is the blame for this pandemic. But I would tell you that this argument is flawed.

SARS-CoV2 comes from a large family of virus, known as coronavirae. SARS-CoV2 is the seventh known coronavirus to infect humans; its predecessors include SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) and MERS-CoV (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus), which were both known to cause severe respiratory illness’ such as pneumonia. There are also other coronavirae such as HCoV-229E, -NL63, -OC43 and -HKU1 which caused a much milder respiratory illness (Corman et al. 2018). The main difference between SARS-CoV2 and its predecessors is that it has reached a pandemic level, there is no current vaccine, and the mode of infection. This is scary, and has apparently sparked an extended fear of the Chinese population as a consequence. This is ridiculous, considering that coronaviruses are 1) not a new thing at all 2) naturally occurring. As an example, in 2012, Saudi Arabia was ground zero for the MERS outbreak. The virus was zoonotically transferred from a dromedary camel and the virus heavily impacted Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Korea, amongst dozens of other countries. A whopping 35% of those who contracted the virus died (WHO 2019), and yet the hysteria of the MERS outbreak relative to the current SARS-CoV2 outbreak seems almost non-existent.

Now in 2020, the outbreak of SARS-CoV2 has prompted certain groups of society to insinuate that China is responsible for 69,500+ deaths worldwide (as of 06/04/2020), despite the science and history combined suggesting otherwise. From Vietnam to Indonesia, Pangolins are considered both a source of food and medicine. The idea that China is responsible for the virus merely due to the consumption of one is ridiculous considering it could have happened in dozens of places across the world. Animals suffer from viruses all the time, and rarely transmit to humans. In my opinion, this is merely a case of a particular pangolin with a particular genome (attributed to natural selection) being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now lets address the conspiracy that SAR-CoV2 was manufactured by Chinese scientists (or any scientist for that matter). While it is entirely possible to construct a man-made virus and send it out into the open, a paper published in the world-renowned journal Nature Medicine blatantly stated “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-Cov2 is not a laboratory construct or purposefully manipulated virus” (Anderson et al. 2020). The researchers used modelling software to simulate the interaction between the virus’ spike protein and binding receptor, ACE2, finding that the binding is not actually ideal like one would expect from a human-engineered bioweapon. Rather, Anderson et al. states that SARS-CoV2 is “most likely the result of natural selection” and “not the product of purposeful manipulation” (Anderson et al. 2020). China bioengineering a virus for mass-human destruction? Science says false.

Although it is completely reasonable to be wary and cynical of one’s surroundings, one must be careful not to indulge in fear-insinuated, media-fuelled, mass hysteria. Covid-19 is a dreadful virus that is planting seeds not only in healthcare systems, economies and communities, but also in the minds of fearful. Don’t let fear and sorrow overcome your judgement, do not give in to the inherit need to blame someone for something out of our control. In a time like this, we must work together, not tear each other apart. And for fuck’s sake, listen to the scientists.

References :

Anderson et al. 2020, “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2”, Nature Medicine,

Corman et al. 2018, “Hosts and Sources of Endemic Human Cronaviruses”, Adv. in Virus Res., 100:163-188

Parliament of Australia 2020, “Top 10 countries of birth for the overseas-born population since 1901”, <https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1819/BornOverseas>, viewed 06/04/2020

Wu et al. 2020, “A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China”, Nature, 579:265-269

Zhang et al. 2020, “Pangolin homology associated with 2019-nCoV”, bioRxiv Preprint

WHO 2019, “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV)”, World Health Organisation, www.who.int, viewed 06/04/2020