At the height of the SARS panic in 2003 a dear friend was working as a server in a downtown chain restaurant. During one of her shifts a family asked to be served by someone else, for no other reason than the fact that she was of Asian descent.
Of course you can argue that these people were only trying to protect themselves… better safe than sorry, right? Unfortunately it’s not so simple as that.
Before this new outbreak is inevitably contained I would humbly ask you to consider that in protecting yourself you may also be inadvertently be causing harm to those who don’t deserve it.
Some further reading on the subject:
Chinese-Canadians facing hate, racism for coronavirus outbreak—much like the SARS outbreak in 2003
Canada’s top doctor calls out ‘racism and stigmatizing comments’ over coronavirus
