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Coronavirus pandemic
SportHong Kong
Patrick Blennerhassett

Opinion | Covid-19 shaming and racism in Hong Kong needs to stop as gyms find themselves unfairly in the crosshairs

  • An outbreak linked to Ursus Fitness has whipped up racism, xenophobia and ethnic slurs in Hong Kong
  • Why do we stoop to this level of despicable behaviour when we should be banding together to fight Covid-19?

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Covid-19 shaming in Hong Kong needs to stop now. Photo: Roy Liu/Bloomberg

“It pains me to say but invariably it is expats who ignore the rules: eating and drinking on public transport and often with coffees in hand on the MTR slurping it with masks down. The fact that some also ignore the rules in gyms is unfortunately therefore no big surprise.”

Sadly, comments like this have become commonplace on Post articles recently, showing a worrying trend towards racism in relation to local cases, and are rife all over social media. Head to a news article, Facebook post or Twitter feed related to Covid-19 and you will find examples of people freely engaging in xenophobia and hurling ethnic slurs. It seems we are at war with each other as much as this virus.

01:39

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The link being made between Covid-19 and race is abhorrent and needs to stop. Accusations are flying and divisions are appearing. This gets us nowhere and leads to more fearmongering.

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Gym owners, personal trainers and people who work out now find themselves the latest target of this sickening practice related to an outbreak at Ursus Fitness in Sai Ying Pun. Globally, cases have been linked to every industry. This virus does not discriminate; we are all impacted by it.

Here in Hong Kong clusters have been linked to many industries, enough that it’s clear this is not a case of bad apples ruining it for everyone, it’s just bad luck. This virus has shown to be resilient, adaptable and fast moving through populations everywhere. Blaming certain sectors of the population, or ethnicities, for spreading the virus is deplorable.

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