Anti-Asian Xenophobia and Asian American COVID-19 Disparities

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread across the United States, so has xenophobia and discriminatory acts against Asian Americans. From March 19, 2020, to May 13, 2020, more than 1700 anti-Asian hate incidents were documented across the United States, according to reports by the STOP AAPI Hate campaign from the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. Although this new rise of racism is alarming, the association between disease, racism, and Asian Americans is not new in US history. “Yellow Peril,” or the fear that Chinese and other Asian immigrants were a threat to America and Western culture, led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—the first racial-based exclusion law in American history. At the turn of the 20th century, public health officials perceived Chinese and other “Orientals” as infested with disease, subjecting them to undue quarantine, medical examinations, and interrogations.