For more than three months, Iwate in northern Japan was the last prefecture in the country where no coronavirus cases had been recorded. But this name only made matters worse when, in spite of everything, the first case emerged.
On July 29, the local government announced that a man in his 40s had symptoms of the virus after returning from a camp near Tokyo, the domain with the highest number of infections. When others learned how he had been infected, outrage erupted.
“Camping this time of year is stupid, thoughtless, and disrespectful to many people’s lives,” one user tweeted.
“I discovered his call and address,” he tweeted. And soon, social media was filled with anger and accusations directed at the guy in question.
Your employer also has a goal. Officials at the fuel company he works for say that when they announced on their website that a worker had tested positive, the system’s servers went down and remained unavailable for a few days due to the huge number of people seeking access to the site.
Although the company explained that the patient had no outdoor work with clients, it flooded him with emails and phone calls. The company claims that between 20 and 30% of the messages were abusive, about 50% were serious criticism of the company. and the rest were favorable.
“Some questioned the fact that he camped out in the open in the prefecture as the virus spread, and others questioned the nature of our employees’ education,” a corporate official said. “It’s as if their frustration over the prolonged restriction due to the pandemic, all directed at us. “
The manager says the tension has spread to other workers, as rumours circulate about infections in the company and one worker’s wife has been asked to take a PCR test through her employer, even though her husband has not had close contact with the patient.
Authorities in the city of Nasushiobara, in Tochigi Prefecture, just north of Tokyo, say citizens whose cars have license plates other than Tochigi’s are being targeted. Angry citizens tell them to leave the domain and even throw plastic bottles at them because they fear someone will bring them. the virus in your city. An official said they had a consultation with a nursing home worker who asked about the damage to the home’s reputation after accepting a resident who had recovered from the virus.
Isono Maho, a medical anthropologist who writes about health care, says other people who attack coronavirus patients feel their shelters are being disrupted by others with weaker ethics, creating an environment of hate.
Isono said she was concerned about the patients who tested positive and apologized for causing disruption even though many of them had no symptoms. “Historically, other Japanese have tended to remain silent or hide when discriminated against,” he says. But Isono believes that anyone who has faced those social sanctions has the strength to speak up and say, “this is not right. “He also says that society has a way to protect those who speak out. The problem, he says, is that discrimination exists even when the government and other governments demand an end.
Nasushiobara officials plan to submit a draft ordinance to the city council in September that would require the city to provide counseling to coronavirus patients and require employers to take steps to prevent violations of the rights of patients and their families.
The national government this month set up a task force to talk about how to strike a balance between respecting patient privacy and preventing the spread of the virus.
The Iwate Prefectural Gas Company says its worker is recovering and is providing intellectual health care to him and his family. And it turns out that the acrimony is decreasing. The company’s workers and the patient now receive more words of encouragement from other citizens.
In early August, the company won flowers from an anonymous person. The message read, “I’d like to send you flowers instead of spreading malicious gossip. “