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Moral Panic Over Disease
Moral Panic

The definition of moral panic by Stanley Cohen states that “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.” Comparing Cohan’s idea of the ‘folk devils’ disease as an epidemic plays the same role with spreading mass panic and fear concerning the spread of an infections disease. This intense concentration on hygiene emerged, before the 20th century, with a medical belief referred to as miasma. The miasma theory, states that disease was the direct result of the polluting emanations of filth: sewer gas, garbage fumes and stenches that polluted air and water, which results in a epidemic. The idea of cleanliness was a socially constructed belief that linked race, gender and sexuality with ideas that made people feel uncomfortable. It is argued that a moral panic is constructed when “patterns of behavior, whether private or public, come to be selected by the mass media as unusual and symbolic of a threat to the fabric of society.”

In various times in history disease has been proven to cause an uproar in society when individuals are faced with something they cannot explain. This fear of disease and spread of panic dates back to many centuries ago, and continuing into the 21 century with diseases such as AIDS, Ebola, H1N1, Zika and SARS.

Examples
1980’s- Present: AIDS

AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, it is also known as late-stage HIV. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome in a person may develop into other fatal health conditions such as pneumonia, fungal infections, TB, toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus. In the 1980’s a moral panic was created within the media over HIV/AIDS. The notable iceberg ad by the government clearly hinted that there were many things about HIV/AIDS that the general public did not realize due to the bulk of the information being hidden from view. On one hand, the media outlets nicknamed HIV/AIDS the ‘gay plague’ stigmatizing a selected section of the population as being the primary cause and carriers of the disease. While on the other hand scientists gained a far better understanding of HIV/AIDS as it grew in the 1980’s and moved into the 1990’s and beyond. The illness was still negatively viewed by many as either caused by or passed on by the gay community. Once it became clear that this wasn't the case, the moral panic created by the media went in another direction blaming the overall negligence of ethical standards of the younger generation (both male and female), resulting in a moral panic. It is prevalent in the media and the way AID/HIV is depicted taken from this extract, “British TV and press coverage is locked into an agenda which blocks out any approach to the subject which does not conform in advance to the values and language of a profoundly homophobic culture- a culture that is which does not regard gay men as fully or properly human. No distinction obtains for the agenda between ‘quality’ and ‘tabloid’ newspapers, or between ‘popular’ and ‘serious’ television.”

2003-2004: SARS

Globalization increases the likelihood that an infectious disease appearing in one area of the world will spread rapidly to another. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recent example of this. Within weeks in the beginning of 2003, SARS had quickly spread from the Guangdong province of China to infect people in over 20 countries around the world. Approximately 15% of patients affected required artificial ventilation. There was also a relatively high death rate. By late March, hundreds of people were infected, with cases reported in China, Singapore, Canada, United States and Thailand. The WHO (World Health Organization) then took the rare step of issuing a worldwide alert. SARS was first reported in the United Kingdom newspapers early March of that year. Reviewing the many reports of the new infectious diseases in the newspapers, highlighted larger public anxieties, in particular anxieties about the insufficiency of technology and medicine that does not have the capacity for new threats as well as moral panic over globalization. Globalization has numerous amounts of definitions: It can be the spread of information, trends, technologies, culture and lifestyles but primarily it is an economic force. One of many consequences of an economic globalization is the quick, cheap access for the mobility of people of all walks of life. Another consequence is larger awareness of global threats and in particular the threat of global epidemics.

2009-2010: Swine Flu/H1N1

H1N1, properly known as swine-origin influenza A/H1N1 virus, first appeared in 2009 in civilians in Mexico. The 2009 pandemic was a compilation of previous swine flu viruses. It is a zoonotic pathogen, a disease that normally exists in animals that started in pigs but can affect humans. As mentioned in Virology Journal, H1N1 could have been a cause of genetic distortion of earlier forms of swine flu viruses that affected Europe and Asia in the 90’s. From the JRSM journals, it refers to our society as ‘risk society’, the journal mentions how “Modernity creates risk by our increasingly busy and urbanized way of life, which includes working conditions, various modes of transport, pollution and infections… subsequently, the modern world is more susceptible to periods of moral panic than ever before." The statement suggests that with the advancement of society and the hyper-awareness is potentially putting people at risk.

2013-2016: Ebola

Ebola virus disease EVD, clinically referred to as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is sometimes a fatal diseases in humans. The illness is often fatal if untreated. It was first diagnosed in patients in West Africa. It was the largest outbreak of Ebola since the 1976 outbreaks in South Sudan and the Republic of Congo. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the virus was named after the Ebola River where the illness first appeared in 1976. “The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission." The epidemic and widespread of panic from the nation's caused difficulties for people traveling across borders. Such as refusing to allow people entering from Africa. Ebola was seen as the ‘folk devil’ from Cohen's study on youth culture. The idea of Ebola spread mass panic in many countries, due to its wide coverage on various news outlets and talk shows. Although, ironically it was not as contagious as influenza H1N1, yet it caused more of an uproar and the spread of fear.

2015-Present: Zika Epidemic

Zika virus (ZIKV) which originated from Uganda, “is carried by mosquitos of the genus Aedus – which includes the mosquito species responsible for spreading dengue and yellow fever." The disease was first seen in patients as a dengue-like syndrome which is a mosquito-borne- tropical disease caused by dengue virus. In early 2015, several cases of patients presenting symptoms of mild fever, rash, conjunctivitis and arthralgia were reported in the northeastern Brazil. The fast-paced spread of the virus was alarming, and in accordance with the idea of the moral panic by Cohan, the fear itself was stagnating an entire population and the health and wellbeing of the nation of Brazil was under scrutiny. A major issue was in pregnant women. Some Brazilian women who had the virus affected the health of the fetus. The fetus was born with microcephaly, an abnormal smallness of the head which leads to a shorter life expectancy in babies. Not only did the disease spread worry, but also the notion that babies were getting harmed lead government officials to call for the regulation of pregnancy among women.