Impact of Public Loathing of Coronavirus Patients during the COVID-19

1.    Background

COVID-19 data analysis 5 series will focus on how emergency measurements during the COVID-19 influence the nationalism around the world. To illustrate, we will analyze the survey results of opinions of global citizens whether they perceive a certain policy will lead a country to nationalism or citizens’ cooperation. International cooperation is occasionally disturbed by countries with strong and offensive nationalism, and sometimes, even a central government cannot control the national outrage triggered by nationalistic sentiment. Even worse, irrational nationalism would bring about racism and xenophobia, which severely undermines the free and open market around the globe. On the contrary, cooperation among citizens and governments would enhance the effectiveness of abating the crisis and it will help fast recovery from an emergency to everyday life.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, there were many people who discriminate against the Chinese, thinking that they are the origin of the horrible and frightful disease. However, the phenomena may lead citizens into racism, which severely deters cooperation in international society and violates human rights. In the fear of this kind of end, many governments were very sensible on banning entry to specific countries’ foreigners, constantly announcing that barring specific foreigners may bring about public loath. Meanwhile, there are some people who are loath on coronavirus confirmed patients and are afraid of being contaminated by them. Then, what about many volunteers and medical teams out there fighting against the virus and help cure those patients? What will the repercussion of the public loathing of coronavirus confirmed patients?

2.    Research Topic

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to sustaining social stability along with protecting the public health. Information and debate in social network services (SNS) may lead public opinion into public loathing towards some people, such as Chinese, coronavirus confirmed patients. In this section, we will scrutinize how global individuals think of the impact of public loathing during the COVID-19 crisis.

3.    Questionnaire Used

Survey Question II-7: “While fighting against a global pandemic like COVID-19, a country may begin to follow either a state-centric and chauvinist path, or a democratic path based on citizen participation. In terms of public loathing of coronavirus patients, what direction do you expect the following policies/trends to take?”

The answers consist of a 10-point scale, with higher scores indicating an individual believes the policy will lead citizens to democratic/participatory citizenship and lower scores demonstrating a person acknowledges the measure will result in citizens’ state-centric/chauvinistic.

4.    Major Outcomes

Table 1: Public Loathing – Nationalism Index (PLNI) and Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI) by Citizens of 30 Global Cities

 

Respondents are asked to choose one score to represent their ideas on the question, and the average scores of each city indicate the Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI). It demonstrates that citizens’ thoughts on the impact of public loathing of coronavirus patients, and the higher the score is, the more individuals believe that public loathing will lead to civilianism of a country. Meanwhile, the reverse scaling was used in the Public Loathing – Nationalism Index (PLNI), which means that 11 minus PLCI is the Public Loathing – Nationalism Index (PLNI). Similarly, the higher the PLNI score is, the more a citizen holds that a certain phenomenon will lead a country to nationalism. Finally, the numerical differences between the two scores were calculated in order to show which side a city is more leaning towards. To illustrate, the higher a numerical difference is, the more citizens of the city assumes the public loathing of patients will lead people to democratic and participatory citizenship.

Table 2: Average Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI) by Region

The scores in the table are the average Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI) of the global citizens by region. To be specific, the lowest score of 5.44 was rated by East Asian citizens on average, and the highest score of 6.58 was rated by Latin American citizens. There were various scores among distinguished areas; nevertheless, all regions except East Asia think the public loathing will result in civilianism in society since the scores of PLCI are higher than the middle number of 5.50.

Figure 1: Bar Graph of Average Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI) by Region

 

Figure 1 is the visualized graph of Table 2, and the orange line is the world average Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI). That Latin American citizens think highly of the public loathing is evidenced by the figure. However, these are generalized numbers by regions, and hence, for further detailed analysis, let’s see each city’s score of PLCIs and PLNIs.

Figure 2: Line Graph of Public Loathing – Nationalism Index (PLNI) and Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI)

 

This figure is a visualized version of Table 1, and the most outstanding finding of Figure 2 is that most cities believe that public loathing may lead citizens to civilianism and facilitate cooperation and participation in preventing the virus spread since most orange dots are above the blue dots. Nonetheless, there are some cities that believe the public loathing will result in state-centric nationalism, which obstructs international cooperation, and these cities are including Seoul, Daegu, Taipei, Singapore, and Manila.

Figure 3: Bar Graph of Numerical Difference between Public Loathing – Civilianism Index (PLCI) and Public Loathing – Nationalism Index (PLNI)

 

The differences between PLCIs and PLNIs are drawn as a bar graph, shown in Figure 3. The orange bar indicates the global average difference score (0.81). Cities with negative numerical differences are marked with red bars, indicating citizens of that city believe that the public loathing will lead a country to nationalism and prevent cooperation among people and countries; yet, cities with blue bars express that the public loathing is effective in a way of stimulating the cooperation and participation on preventing the further spread of the coronavirus. To be more specific, all Latin American people highly believe that public loathing is positive in facilitating citizens’ cooperation and participation, seeing their bars are longest among 30 global cities. Last but not least, the “loathing” the word itself represents a negative meaning; nevertheless, 25 out of 30 cities consider the public loathing has a positive influence in furthering people’s civilized behavior.

5.    Summaries and Further Tasks

a.     Data analysis shows contradicting views on public loathing of coronavirus confirmed patients, but the graphs also indicate that most cities believe the public loathing has a positive meaning in democratic and cooperative behavior.

b.     Daegu, Taipei, Seoul, Manila, and Singapore consider that the public loathing may lead citizens to state-centric nationalism and hinders people from national and international cooperation. Other than these five cities, other cities’ citizens concluded that the public loathing is effective in encouraging people to be more cooperative in abating the COVID-19 pandemic.

c.     Latin American average PLCI is higher than the global average, illuminating the region is more confident in public loathing phenomenon amid the COVID-19 crisis.

d.     The study is limited to descriptive research, and therefore, a more detailed explanative investigation is required to further understand the global citizens’ consciousness presented above. For instance, why global citizens are holding a positive attitude towards public loathing, even though the loathing the word itself is very negative? Why some cities, including Seoul, Daegu, Taipei, Manila, and Singapore are holding the opposite opinion on public loathing compared to the other 25 global cities?