Finding a Scapegoat When Epidemics Strike
September 29, 2009
In a New York Times essay titled “Finding a Scapegoat When Epidemics Strike,” Donald G. McNeil Jr. looks at how, throughout history, some group always seems to get blamed for the spread of a pandemic disease. Dr. Liise-anne Pirofski, chief of infectious diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, explained that “ ‘when disease strikes and humans suffer . . . the need to understand why is very powerful. And, unfortunately, identification of a scapegoat is sometimes inevitable.’ ”
Discussion Questions:
- What is a scapegoat? What purpose does a scapegoat serve? Dr. Liise-anne Pirofski stated that “when disease strikes and humans suffer . . . the need to understand why is very powerful. And, unfortunately, identification of a scapegoat is sometimes inevitable.” Why do you think Dr. Pirofski believes that the identification of a scapegoat is sometimes inevitable? Do you agree with her? How might scapegoating be prevented?
- In May, McNeil writes, “the Egyptian government slaughtered thousands of pigs belonging to the Coptic Christian minority, despite international protests that doing so was racist against Copts and medically pointless because the disease was already in people.” Why do you think the Egyptian government slaughtered thousands of pigs? If the disease was already in people, what purpose did their actions serve?
- Originally, some people suggested calling what is now known as the swine flu the “Mexican flu” or the “Veracruz flu” or the “La Gloria flu.” How do you think those names might have shaped the way people responded to this epidemic?
- Dr. Mirta Roses, director of the Pan American Health Organization, stated that when a pandemic is named, “ ‘we try to avoid demonizing anyone and to keep the focus on the virus. . . . It helps reduce the level of panic and aggression.” How could the name of a pandemic cause panic and aggression? How could it reduce panic and aggression? Why do you think the name “H1N1” did not catch on?
- Mexicans were the first to be blamed for the swine flu outbreak this year. McNeil writes that “in May, a Mexican soccer player who said he was called a ‘leper’ by a Chilean opponent spat on his tormenter; Chilean news media accused him of germ warfare.” What is germ warfare? What is the danger of such an accusation?
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