Unlike humans, pandemics don’t discriminate. Viruses transgress the borders of race, religion, gender, class and other divisions to solely attack the human body. Primarily, it should be human race versus, but the atrocities inflicted on the vulnerable groups around the world depicts a horrendous image of humanity.

Hence, first and foremost issue has been humans versus humans then the virus. Past pandemics display that whenever humans encounter something beyond their span of understanding, they labelled it as the evil.

Secondly, they had taken the essential route of blaming the assumed evil on the easy target. The history of pandemics reveal the narrative of dominant group inculpating minorities as the direct cause of diseases. The infamous Black Death (1348-1350) showed us the paramount role of pandemics in shaping stereotypes circulated by the dominant group.

There had been a gigantic wave of anti-semitic violence arisen from prejudice against Jews during Black Death.

The Christian Bishops and patricians accused Jewish communities of poisoning wells and foods in order to destroy Christendom.

They were considered sole carriers of the evil disease. Mass persecution against Jewish communities was widely encouraged.

The constant fear of death and accelerating despair in human race resulted in spreading false information and targeting the voiceless groups in society.

It heightened prejudice against Jews. Hence, it reflects how humans become irrational and vicious beasts attacking the ones they consider inferior when they are unable to make sense out of the existing catastrophe.

Today in times of coronavirus, humans are drowned in desolation and despair. A volcano of questions is erupting everyday regarding our ambiguous state.

The callous wave of COVID-19 has entrapped the human race in the labyrinth of uncertainty and the game of blaming the vulnerable population has once again revived.

COVID-19 has amplified underlying biases and is reflecting transparent image of human values.

Number of countries have reported intense discrimination, racism and xenophobia against marginalized people especially people of Asian descent since the  coronavirus outbreak.

Physical and psychological abuse in the streets and workplaces has become common. Many incidents of targeted harassment in United Kingdom, Italy, US and other countries have surfaced the internet.

It has displayed human’s dependency on stereotypes and stigmas as the only way to deal with anxiety exuding from such outbreaks.

People of Asian descent around the world are living with fear of surveillance as they are being bullied constantly.

The prime issue is that these stereotypes live even after the pandemic and they haunt many innocent lives.

Targeted group has to endure psychological effects of being accused and it can widely scars their lives.

Henry Abramson, specialist in Jewish history stated that half-century after the Black Death, Jews residing in Freiburg were accused of “poisoning the air”.

Hence, false information during the virus outbreak has the ability to loom in future as well.

Moreover, new derogatory terms are being introduced to contribute hate speech towards marginalized population.  For instance, President Donald Trump’s inconsiderate remarks caused an uproar when he referred to COVID-19 as “Chinese Virus”.

In addition, White House official named the virus”Kung flu”. Such remarks have only exacerbated stereotypes. Muslims have also been the victim of human rights violation during the current outbreak. For instance, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had noticed angry threats towards Cambodia’s Muslim communities since the Health Minister discriminatory statement surfaced on internet on March 17th, 2020. While reporting cases of coronavirus, he blatantly gave religion reference accusing Muslims for virus spread in the country.

The statement accelerated the use of derogatory terms against Muslims on online platforms.

Since then, Cambodian Muslims have reported disparaging remarks and actions of non-Muslim Cambodians, who had refused to buy and sell products to Muslims, denied them entry into shops and used face marks while interacting with Muslims.

Hence, it reflects that the danger of fallacious information can initiate uncontrollable burst of violence and is a threat to peaceful existence.

Likewise, there had been a reiteration of the term “corona jihad” by some Hindu Nationalist politicians accusing the Indian Muslim community for the coronavirus outbreak.

Many videos of physical and verbal attacks on Muslims amid COVID-19 has flooded social media platforms.

Labeled as the carriers of coronavirus, Indian Muslims are being brutally abused. In one incident, workers who were distributing food in slum areas were beaten by bats and labelled as the virus carriers.

Many people have argued that there is some truth behind these accusations as many individuals refuse to follow government instructions.

The fact regarding erupting ignorance of humans can’t be denied yet it also does not justify lynching or violence against a whole community based on religious or ethnic identity.

It is the responsibility of government to ensure safety of the vulnerable communities. Any statement from government officials that encourages hatred and discrimination towards a specific group must be ceased. Leaders, politicians, celebrities etc. with power of voice must address this injustice and spread the message to not target any race, religious or ethnic group.

Media must be used in a proper manner to regulate transparent information and awareness about social stigmas during this outbreak.

The striking ambiguity of present times has skyrocketed existential crisis, anxiety and metaphysical dread in humans.

The lingering fear of the present and haunting future ties us at one point. It is a crucial times like this where we must refrain from blaming one another and widen the space for empathy and love.