Stigma toward Wuhan people during the COVID-19 epidemic: an exploratory study based on social media

Yazheng Di,Simin Yang,Tingshao Zhu,Peijing Wu,Xiaoqian Liu,He Li,Ang Li,Meng Zhu

doi:10.1186/s12889-021-12001-2

Abstract

BackgroundStigma associated with infectious diseases is common and causes various negative effects on stigmatized people. With Wuhan as the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, its people were likely to be the target of stigmatization. To evaluate the severity of stigmatization toward Wuhan people and provide necessary information for stigma mitigation, this study aimed to identify the stigmatizing attitudes toward Wuhan people and trace their changes as COVID-19 progresses in China by analyzing related posts on social media.MethodsWe collected 19,780 Weibo posts containing the keyword ‘Wuhan people’ and performed a content analysis to identify stigmatizing attitudes in the posts. Then, we divided our observation time into three periods and performed repeated-measures ANOVA to compare the differences in attitudes during the three periods.ResultsThe results showed that stigma was mild, with 2.46% of related posts being stigmatizing. The percentages of stigmatizing posts differed significantly during the three periods. The percentages of ‘Infectious’ posts and ‘Stupid’ posts were significantly different for the three periods. The percentage of ‘Irresponsible’ posts was not significantly different for the three periods. After government interventions, stigma did not decrease significantly, and stigma with the ‘Infectious’ attitude even increased. It was not until the government interventions took effect that stigma significantly reduced.ConclusionsThis study found that stigma toward Wuhan people included diverse attitudes and changed at different periods. After government interventions but before they took effect, stigma with the ‘Infectious’ attitude increased. After government interventions took effect, general stigma and stigmas with ‘Infectious’ and ‘Stupid’ attitudes decreased. This study constituted an important endeavor to understand the stigma toward Wuhan people in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. Implications for stigma reduction and improvement of the public’s perception during different periods of epidemic control are discussed.

Highlights

Stigma associated with infectious diseases is common and causes various negative effects on stigmatized people
Emerging infectious diseases may lead to stigmatization [1] toward patients and those living in epidemic-stricken areas, which has various negative effects on target groups [2,3,4]
Participants The total number of posts we gathered using the keywords “Wuhan people” is 19,780. 1921 posts were not related to COVID-19 and 2203 posts with users not in the provincial areas

Summary

Introduction

Stigma associated with infectious diseases is common and causes various negative effects on stigmatized people. Most of the studies have focused on the perceived stigma of healthcare workers [15,16,17,18] and COVID-19 survivors [19, 20]. These studies indicated a severe level of stigmatization. Few studies have focused on how social stigma increases during the early stage of the disease. As a group living in the place where the disease first broke out, social stigma in China may influence many aspects of the lives of Wuhan people. Understanding and mitigating the social stigma in China toward Wuhan people are necessary

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Discussion

Conclusion