ANTHROP 2U03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Atypical Pneumonia, Global Health
6 Dec 2017
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Reading: washer pg 98 107: according to washer, the western media reported the 2003 sars outbreak by focusing on its effect on daily life, particularly in hong kong, the putative center of the epidemic. The stories evoked either zombie or post-apocalypse horror-film imagery: deserting shopping malls, cinemas and restaurants, empty public transport, events where crowds would gather cancelled, and the use of surgical face masks. Communist authorities were blamed for having covered up the scale of the epidemic and for not having co-operated" with the global health authorities" (western doctors, scientists and epidemiologists). A second strand of blame was related to certain (chinese) individuals. Kong after caring for sars patients in china). The most prominent element of blame was directed against the chinese people and chinese culture more generally. The chinese were said to be fond of exotic foods, to live close to animals and to have poor hygiene practices.
