Moral Panic -The Spread of Covid-19

 Moral  Panic - An irrational fear that has been spread and exaggerated by the media

Concern - An event sparks anxiety

Hostility - Subculture is seen as folk devils, targeted by the media

Consensus - Takes over the narrative 

Disproportionality -Threats are greatly exaggerated 

Volatility - A change is made in the story before fading away and being replaced

    During late 2019 and early 2020, there was a rise in mass anxiety following the spread of Covid-19. The virus was said to have started in Wuhan, China before spreading to the rest of the world. Asian citizens around the world -- mostly east Asians -- have experienced a surge in racially motivated hate crimes. The "othering" of Asians has increased significantly after the virus spread and the fear of a "Chinese virus" started to take over the media. 

    Concern - When word broke out that the virus originated in China and started to cause mayhem in Wuhan, the fear of anything East Asians or Chinese people started to rise. People started displaying xenophobia towards people of Asian descent. Not sitting near an Asian person on a bus, banning Asian people from stores, and flat-out harassment. Some individuals even started to avoid going into Asian grocery stores. 

Hostility - The hostility started to get worse after Donald Trump (the USA's president at the time) referred to Covid-19 as "the Chinese Virus" in a Tweet.

There was a reported 339% increase in Asian-related crime and hate worldwide after the virus had spread. 

Consensus - The news of the virus spreading had completely consumed the media for months. All people saw were death counts and statistics of what happened during the pandemic. The narrative for a while was that China was responsible for the spread of the virus and that Asians were going to spread it to everyone. 

Disproportionality - This fear that was being put into people by the media caused many Asian hate crimes. Including many Asian people being pushed onto incoming train tracks, elderly people getting beat up, and acid attacks on Asian people. 

Volatility - In recent years the focus on the pandemic has dwindled, along with the virus' ties to Asians. But the racism and stigma against Asians still exist as Asian-related hate crimes have still occurred to this day. The media just refuses to report on it due to it being "old news". Although the fear-mongering of the virus has faded from the news recently the consequences are still felt to this day and had caused many assaults on people of Asian descent.