Root out discrimination and stigma, protect patient confidentiality

Root out discrimination and stigma, protect patient confidentiality

During previous public health crises, people with infection or disease and their families have often faced discrimination and stigma. For example, Human Rights Watch found that people living with HIV in Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines, and the US faced discrimination and stigma due to their HIV status and have been prevented from accessing health care, getting jobs, and attending school. Public health research has shown that survivors of Ebola in West Africa have faced harmful stigma that, in some cases, has led to eviction, loss of employment, abandonment, violence, and other consequences.

Since the coronavirus outbreak, news reports from a number of countries have documented bias, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination against people of Asian descent. Incidents include physical attacks and beatings, violent bullying in schools, angry threats, discrimination at school or in workplaces, and the use of derogatory language in news reports and on social media platforms, among others. Since January, media have reported alarming incidents of hate crimes in the United Kingdom, the US, Spain, and Italy, among other countries, targeting people of Asian descent, apparently linked to COVID-19. Senior US government officials, including President Donald Trump, have stoked anti-Chinese sentiment by referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus,” and in one incident reported by a White House correspondent, the “Kung Flu.” Anti-immigrant leaders like Victor Orban in Hungary and Matteo Salvini in Italy have seized on the pandemic to stoke xenophobic sentiment.

South Korean authorities believe 63 percent of the then more than 7,300 confirmed cases in the country attended services held by the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the city of Daegu or had contact with attendees. In a statement, the church reported “4,000 cases of injustice” against congregants since the outbreak, including “termination of employment, workplace bullying, domestic persecution, labeling, and slandering,” and said the church was being blamed as “the main culprit of the COVID-19 outbreak.”

Reporting by the BBC in South Korea found that public health alerts around the virus may not have adequately protected the privacy of individuals with the virus. 

Governments should take swift action to protect from attack individuals and communities who may be targeted as bearing responsibility for COVID-19, thoroughly investigate all reported incidents, and hold perpetrators accountable.

Governments should ensure that response measures to COVID-19 do not target or discriminate against particular religious or ethnic groups, and that responses are inclusive of and respect the rights of marginalized groups, including people with disabilities and older people. Governments should ensure equal access to emergency services to people with disabilities and older people.

Governments should work to combat stigma and discrimination by training health workers on COVID-19, using mass media and school networks to expand public awareness of human rights, and recognizing that the virus knows no boundaries and recognizes no distinctions of race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality.

Governments should ensure that patient confidentiality is protected even as authorities take steps to identify those who may have been exposed to the virus.