Abstract
This article delineates the lay perceptions of COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. More specifically, it discusses how people interpret the origin and transmission of COVID-19. Like the other countries of the world, this virus appeared as a new phenomenon in Bangladesh and is now known as coronarog. The transmission of this virus added new terms such as lockdown, quarantine, isolation, et cetera, to the popular discourse and produced a new experience. The high rates of infection and death caused by the virus have percolated fear and anxiety among people. Excessive fear about the disease has led to the stigmatisation of the disease and the infected. Drawing on observation, media reports and qualitative interviews, this article argues that laypeople use either a personalistic or a naturalistic explanation to make sense of the disease. Their explanations are associated with their access to different types of capital. This article contributes to medical anthropology literature on health and illness by explaining the cultural model of illness classification related to COVID-19.
Highlights
On 20 March 2020, a news story of the Prothom-Alo, a leading Bengali language daily in Bangladesh, attracted the attention of many readers
In a kin-based society like Bangladesh where kin responsibility and hospitality stand as an essential part of people’s social life, the idea of ‘quarantine’ produced mixed experiences for them. This incident occurred in Habiganj district, in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh, in March 2020, when Bangladeshi people came across the terms such as coronavirus, quarantine and isolation through news media for the first time in their lives
This study has found different conceptions of COVID-19 in Bangladeshi society
Summary
On 20 March 2020, a news story of the Prothom-Alo, a leading Bengali language daily in Bangladesh, attracted the attention of many readers. In a kin-based society like Bangladesh where kin responsibility and hospitality stand as an essential part of people’s social life, the idea of ‘quarantine’ produced mixed experiences for them This incident occurred in Habiganj district, in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh, in March 2020, when Bangladeshi people came across the terms such as coronavirus, quarantine and isolation through news media for the first time in their lives. Dushi, jadu and gojob occur due to unnatural causes like the attack of evil spirits or forces and have a personalistic etiological explanation She argues, ‘The nature of illnesses due to jadu is in many ways similar to those of dushi, but the illnesses caused by jadu occur because of human activity while the illnesses caused by dushi occur due to non-human agents’ (Begum 2015: 100). Using the concepts of etiological explanations and capital, this study explains how people in Bangladesh define the COVID-19 pandemic
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