Blaming Minorities for a Spike in Coronavirus Cases in the UK
Right-wing news outlet Politicalite published an article on July 16th titled: “CORONA CLUSTER: Over-Populated Pakistani Ghettos in Lancashire See HUGE Rise In Corona Cases." A few days later, the outlet ran essentially the same story with a similarly inflammatory headline: “REVEALED: UK’s Immigrant Ghettos Suffer HUGE SPIKES in Coronavirus Cases.” The articles are in relation to a spike of coronavirus cases in the English city of Leicester.
These articles were not published in isolation; a few weeks prior, several news outlets incorrectly reported that “‘Half of UK imported coronavirus cases ‘originate from Pakistan”, as per an article by The Sun. This headline incorrectly implied that half of all imported UK coronavirus cases were from Pakistan. In the opening paragraph of the article, The Sun noted that 65,000 people returned to the UK from Pakistan since March 1st, implying that this number resulted in a large influx of cases prior to lockdown in the UK. As the Centre for Media Monitoring noted, this was a clear example of skewed information. Data from Public Health England, which the article was based on, only included cases since 4th June and from that date, the total imported cases from Pakistan were only 30. In fact, most imported cases of the virus to the UK came from other EU countries, especially Italy, France and Spain.
The Sun has since changed their headline to clarify that only since June 4th have half of the important cases of the virus been from Pakistan, totalling 30. They have also edited their opening paragraph to reflect this. The Times similarly edited their headline to clarify that the data is only reflecting cases since June 4th.
The issue here is framing. The Coronavirus has been on the forefront of media coverage around the world, so it is only to be expected that a spike in cases in a certain area or imported from a certain country are going to be reported, but this must be done in a correct and non-biased manner. As Rizwana Hamid, the Director of Centre for Media Monitoring noted: “30 cases of COVID-19 coming from Pakistan is not newsworthy and appears to have only been given prominence due to the way The Telegraph chose to frame the story. Race-baiting and appealing to the far-right should not be the basis of newspaper articles in the UK and the articles in the Sun, Mail Online and Telegraph should all be fully retracted with apologies for the errors given equal prominence to the original stories."
Referring to neighbourhoods with a large Pakistani population and “ghettos”, as done in Politicalite, is inflammatory and sends the message that these areas are dangerous and dirty. These cases fit into a larger narrative around Muslims in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic: they have repeatedly been the source of the blame in the media. “For example, images of mosques and women in hijabs have previously accompanied stories relating to the virus, appearing to subliminally try and link the two,” Hamid explains.“Reports of "mass graves" at a Muslim cemetery were published, when in fact they were rows of pre-dug graves with single chambers. And in the leadup to Ramadan, we had a spate of sensationalist reports claiming experts feared a spike of coronavirus cases, which was exaggerated and proved untrue.”
Diseases have been blamed on minorities for centuries. The bubonic plague (also known as the Black Death) was disastrous in Europe in 1348. Searching for an explanation to the horror, many blamed the Jewish community. When Irish people emigrated to the US, they were blamed for the outbreak of cholera in many cities, which happened to break out at the same time. It is a dangerous theme that we see time and time again: blaming ‘outsiders’ for disease, stigmatising them further in society. The consequences can be felt for years to come, and therefore we must continue to monitor and report it.
