- Gee, there's a bug, there's
a flu, there's a virus.
They didn't know 
what it was in China,
and I said, "Uh-oh, that
doesn't sound good."
- The coronavirus,
officially known as COVID-19,
was first observed in
China in November of 2019.
It has since infected
more than 100,000 people,
caused thousands of
deaths, and been labeled
as a global pandemic by the
World Health Organization.
Yet not much is still known
about the spread of the virus
or how to fight it.
As the panic has spread,
warnings to avoid Asians
and Asian-populated areas 
have gone viral.
Social media has been filled
with racist posts against Asians.
Some even blamed the
outbreak on claims like,
"Chinese people eat bats."
The fact is, some people
in China do eat bats.
However, bats are also 
consumed by people
all over the world.
Notably, more commonly 
consumed meats,
like beef, pork, and chicken,
can also transmit potential disease,
most famously mad cow disease,
swine flu, and salmonella.
Yet nobody was vilified
for still eating pork
during the 2009 
swine flu pandemic.
Just because food practices
may differ from one culture
to the next, it does not
inherently mean they are wrong.
In reality, scientists
don't yet know exactly
where this coronavirus originated
and how it was 
transmitted to humans.
There is good evidence
that bats could have been
the original source of this outbreak,
but even if that is ultimately
found to be the case,
it does not warrant the ill-informed
and often racist memes
making their rounds online.
Asian, and particularly Chinese
communities around the world
are facing ostracization,
hostility, and racial abuse.
Others in the community
have also been explicitly
turned down from, or asked to
not make appearances at events.
In February, a Vietnamese
artist was requested
to not attend 
London's Affordable Art Fair
due to coronavirus anxiety.
They were told,
"Asians are being seen
"as carriers of the virus."
Violence has also taken
a serious toll on members
of the Asian community.
A 23-year-old Singapore
student of Chinese ethnicity
was brutally attacked
in a racially aggravated
assault in London.
The student's face was fractured,
and his attackers shouted,
"I don't want your
coronavirus in my country."
It's important to be cautious 
in the face
of this global health emergency,
and to take reasonable
precautions to prevent infection.
But it's just as important
not to give in to racism
and hatred, piling more harm
onto an already painful situation.
