제 5 호 Bulk Buying Masks and Discrimination Against Certain Races
Kicker: WORLD (Psychological Phenomenon)
Bulk Buying Masks and Discrimination Against Certain Races
Centrally Focused on Psychological Phenomenon
By Yoo-jung Kim, Reporter/ Dong-wook Kim, Reporter
kyjmimi121@naver.com, smartpodo@kakao.com
The people in the world have fought with many diseases. For instance, there are INFLUENZA, MERS, and SARS. This time, a new virus occurred that is as scary as diseases like INFLUENZA, MERS, and SARS. It is the new coronavirus. A total of six types of coronavirus are known to be viruses that can infect humans and various animals. There are four types of colds and two types of severe lung disease. In particular, symptoms of the coronavirus include fever, respiratory symptoms and pneumonia. Currently, there are 67,098 confirmed patients worldwide, with China's ratio overwhelmingly high and 1,523 deaths by government. In the case of Korea, 28 people have been confirmed, but there are no deaths and the number of discharged patients is increasing. But it is true that people worldwide have suffered from the new coronavirus. There are a large number of people wearing masks on the streets, and even a little cough often makes them reluctant to be around others. The new coronavirus has made a variety of phenomenon.
▶ First Phenomenon: The lack of mask
The new coronavirus has caused a lack of masks. Corona virus is said to be capable of infecting the air. In addition, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the air is alive for about three hours. Accordingly, our government has officially recommended wearing masks as a precautionary measure. Therefore, kf94 or kf80 mask that is licensed by the Ministry of Food and Drugs is being sold out. However, it is difficult for ordinary citizens to get masks even when they go to pharmacies or convenience stores. This is because they bought a lot of kf94 masks in the early stages of the coronavirus and are selling them again by exaggerating the price. In fact, in Coupang or other places, there were sellers who demanded 200,000 won for fifty masks at a price of about 3,000 to 4,000 won. Still, many citizens live with the anxiety of the coronavirus. It is unfair, but we have no choice but to live to protect ourselves. In response, the government should present a solution to this so that all citizens can cope with the coronavirus effectively. They should also be banned from selling masks back at high prices. Our government should protect its citizens.
▶ Mask that has soared in price since the coronavirus outbreak in real shopping malls & a picture showing the lack of masks at a pharmacy
▶ Second Phenomenon: Certain race discrimination
Also there seems to be a new psychological symptom caused by coronavirus in addition to coughing and high fever. Sinophobia, which means a fear of Chinese, is spreading way faster than coronavirus. People around the world are frightened of Chinese because the coronavirus has come from Wuhan, one of the provinces of China. Statistically, it is much easier to get coronavirus from Chinese more than another race of a person.
In South Korea, a lot of restaurants have refused to deliver food to the Dae-rim-dong area which is dense with Chinese. The deliverymen are risking their chances to get a coronavirus from customers who are not wearing masks. This leads them to not want to visit Chinse dense areas. Widely, people living in Korea are avoiding Chinese outside. According to a Chinese food restaurant, the demand for Chinese food has decreased significantly now compared to before the start of the coronavirus.
▶ Restaurant in Seoul, but with less customers than usual
Sinophobia seems to be pandemic, not only in Asian countries around China but all around the world. Actually, the phobia has gone wrong in Western countries. The Westerners are avoiding all the Asian people around them, since the Westerners are having a hard time distinguishing Chinese from non-Chinese by their looks. The problem is going on quite widely, and some countries have banned students to enter school lectures.
An interesting situation happened about this indiscriminate hate on the 2nd of February. A Korean English Premier League player, Son Heung-min, did an interview after the match with Manchester City. During the interview, he had a dry cough because of his dry respiratory system. After this interview, footage was posted in social media. Some Western football fans left comments like, ‘Did he just cough? I feel coronavirus!’ ,’It’s time to go home, Son’, connecting a cough to a serious disease symptom.
▶ Fake Photo of Son Heung-min with his teammates; all wearing a mask except for him
The coronavirus is terrifying everyone around the world at the start of 2020. The virus is making people to worry about buying masks and making some races fearful. These situations can be natural phenomena because people are unstable, and this unstable emotion can bring hate against certain races. Until this disease gets taken care of and the cure of this virus gets invented, this uncomfortable feeling will go on. Thus, people around the world should take this disease seriously and wisely solve this situation in order to feel safe from these psychological problems.
This article was written as of February 16, 2020.
Sources:
https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/202003131070785520?did=NA&dtype=&dtypecode=&prnewsid=
https://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2020/01/30/2020013003290.html
