As with the stigma in the AIDS crisis, Stigma around the Coronavirus is more dangerous than the disease itself.
During the 1980s, stigma and homophobia about the HIV/AIDS still had an influence on medical, government and public responses. This was so serious that government blood group donation service even used posters instructing ‘gays’ or ‘moffies’ or individuals who had sex with the ‘gays’ or ‘moffies’ not to donate their blood. ‘Moffie’ is a derogatory term used to refer to gays in South Africa.
This was despite the evidence that people were dying of the HIV/AIDS regardless of who they had sex with.
In 1998, the stigma and fear led to the brutal murder of Gugu Dlamini by a mob from her neighborhood. She was an AIDS activist who was determined to fight against the constant discrimination and stigma people living with HIV/AIDS were facing at the time. People experienced the full effects of the stigma and shame from others. Internal stigma also played a part in the affected seeking treatment.
Early march 2020, a shop assistant in a Cape Town neighborhood recalled how people run past her, proclaiming the deadly coronavirus has arrived in the country, after some tourists were relaxing at an open eating area near her. The tourists left but the discrimination and stigma left an indelible mark on all those involved.
As the occurrence of diseases over the centuries has shown, the causative factors of illnesses do not have any care in the world for our own assumptions about our false sense of superiority on our planet. These diseases also have no recognition for the symbols and structures individuals use to try and create a false sense of security.
What we should take from the past pandemics over the centuries show that, the biggest issue during pandemics is not only about the causative agents, but the manner in which we react to them. There are significant differences between the AIDS epidemic, the COVID19 pandemic and other pandemics long ago. Still, evidences suggest that there are numerous similarities that remind us that pandemics feast on the hierarchies, inequalities and fault lines that people create locally and globally.
During pandemics, individuals have to make decisions about to move about their lives individually and as communities. Individual responses have most often than not been driven by anger, anxiety, opportunities for gain, fear and a constant need to have this believe that ‘we’ are actually safe and ‘others’ are actually the issue or problem.
Gugu Dlamini`s murder by the mob shows this generally lead to fatal behaviour. People reacting due to fear or absence of knowledge make it simple for elites, corporations and governments to manipulate these fears and use the fears to their own selfish interests.
