The Hongcouver | An anti-Chinese virus was spreading in Vancouver. But data that could have broken infection chains of racism was kept secret
- Covid-19 data showing Chinese-dominated Richmond is Vancouver’s least infected area could have undermined racist sentiment – but it was suppressed for months
- Gene sequencing also shows BC’s pandemic mostly involves virus strains that arrived from the US, eastern Canada and Europe, while Chinese strains fizzled
On Thursday, more than four months into British Columbia’s Covid-19 pandemic, officials finally released regionalised data showing that Chinese-majority Richmond – once feared as potential ground zero for the outbreak – was in fact metro Vancouver’s least infected area.
Ironically, the goal of withholding the data for so long was to avoid stigmatising certain communities.
That may not have worked out so well.
I say “ironically” because, in the meantime, incidents of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese racism associated with Covid-19 were spreading.
A frail 92-year-old was hurled out of a store by a burly man shouting anti-Chinese slurs about Covid-19. A young woman in a face mask was punched in the face on the street. The stone lions standing guard in Chinatown were repeatedly defaced with Covid-19 graffiti.
Vancouver’s Deputy Chief Constable Howard Chow said the increase in hate crimes was “staggering”, with 29 anti-Asian cases being investigated this year, as of May 22, compared with four in the same period last year.
