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I don’t usually write about being Asian-American.
Microaggressions, systemic inequality and racism in all their complexity cannot be summarized here. I cannot summarize here my personal feelings about being a light-skinned East Asian American woman with relative privilege, although forced to live in a relative state of tranquility. But my reaction to the brief exchange between Donald Trump and Weijia Jiang can.
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I am a graduate student in journalism and am already suspicious of ethics discussions that focus on the experiences of white journalists. Backtracking is something I look forward to, and I prepare by reading the work of women of color. It is a quiet exercise of solidarity, only for me, only in my mind.
And honestly, Trump’s responses, known for his evasion and inaccuracy, generally elicit no emotional response. But this time, Jiang’s unanswered question, and the use of racism to calm her, left me uneasy.
On Monday, Donald Trump held a briefing in the White House Rose Garden, alleging the erroneous claim that Covid-19 tests are available to anyone who wants to be tested. Faced with a banner boldly saying that “AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TRIALS,” he stirred when reporters asked questions.
(In quick response to the banner: According to Our World Data, when you control a country’s population, the United States does not lead the world in testing. In fact, it lags far behind a large number of countries, including Denmark, Italy and New Zealand.)
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Journalists continued to question the claim that the evidence is available to any American. Trump replied: “It is already a true statement. We have more evidence than anyone,” repeatedly reducing the pandemic response to global competition.
CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang pointed this out by asking, “Why is it a global competition for you when Americans are losing their lives every day?”
Trump replied, “Maybe that’s a question I should ask China.”
Jiang, a Chinese-born Asian-American, asked, “Why are you telling me that specifically?”
Trump said: “I tell anyone who asks an unpleasant question like that.” He then rejected CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins’ question and left the Rose Garden. And, like many questions from the beginning of his presidency, Jiang was left unanswered.
Trump’s evasion diminishes any critical response to his statements, which is a necessary function of journalism. Throughout the pandemic, it has not addressed how the delay in testing in the United States led to widespread and lengthy orders to stay home or why resources were lacking in hospitals. Investigative reporters evaluated systemic problems in our government, hospitals, and other institutions. White House correspondents examined false statements and rigorously questioned an administration that shares inaccuracies with the world. For more than three years, reporters have analyzed the confusing “truth”, investigating it, reexamining it and, in many cases, discrediting it.
This time, the President tried to silence an Asian American journalist with a very valid question. If the United States has more tests than other countries it does not address whether the tests are accurate or available, or whether those tests are doing something useful in terms of helping us out of quarantine and continue navigating this new normal. So, let’s talk about Jiang’s question, who questioned the measure of success of Trump’s tests, a necessary prerequisite for reopening the economy. This is a point that is especially important now that protests erupt in rural America.
“Quarantine is for sick people; you lock up sick people,” Eric Moutsos told NPR recently. Moustos helped create a Facebook group called Utah Business Revival that held a protest to “reopen the economy” on April 18 in Salt Lake City.
The protests are inadvisable, considering the recommendations of the CDC and health care experts, as is the suggestion to reopen the economy at this time. However, the Moustos point touches on two major anxieties in our current time: first, when the economy closes and there is little or no option for the general public, who need to pay bills and rent, when the choice is between devastation. Financial or life threatening illness: what is an ordinary American supposed to do? Second, how do you know if you are sick if you cannot access an antigen test for a current infection and how do you know that were sick of coronavirus if the other tests – the antibody tests – are not reliable enough?
Health officials have cited antibody testing in particular as a tool to reopen the economy. However, it is possible to obtain a false positive even when an effective antibody test is performed. And the prevalence of false positives is more likely when only a small part of the population has had the virus. This could cause people to re-enter the workforce with false positives, contributing to viral spread. FDA regulations have been relaxed during the pandemic to allow antibody tests to come to market faster, but that relaxation of the regulations comes at a price and inevitably means that some barely effective tests will. Some could even be used on people desperate to find out if the disease they had a few weeks ago was Covid-19 right now.
It is worth noting that the World Health Organization has also said that “there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.” So without this definitive information, those who were once sick and recovered could be reinfected. Scientists think that those who had a more serious infection could give immunity for a longer time, but the truth is that this is an unprecedented situation and nobody has a definitive idea.
On Tuesday, leaders of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response told a Senate panel that the United States did not have the ability to control a spike in cases where the nation prematurely opened the economy. Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that states emerging from confinement could see a very bleak reality in a matter of weeks. We know that people, especially young people, can be asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19, so antigen tests are as important as antibody tests to help control and mitigate this increase. Unfortunately, it is still unclear if those tests are available and accessible in the numbers they should be.
A third-year resident at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York, told me in March that he started calling colleagues on his days off. The Covid-19 pandemic brought residents closer together while working long hours. Together, they carefully estimated the number of fans remaining and worried about saying too much on social media. After three residents became ill with suspected cases of the virus, administrators punished residents who posted online about what was happening inside the hospital. In response, the united group moved to a private Facebook page, and more experienced residents offered advice to newer ones.
“Every day, literally, you can feel it getting worse and worse,” said the resident. “The entire hospital is now almost a Covid hospital.”
As the months went by, overcrowded hospitals and makeshift intensive care units became the norm in New York City hospitals, while Covid-19 cases steadily increased. It is the hope that another increase in cases will be avoided, although one could soon come for states abandoning social distancing, and an increase in those states will inevitably lead to another in a well-connected and densely populated city like New York.
Journalists like Weijia Jiang, who question wrong measures of success and misinformation, play an important role in response and prevention by challenging inaccuracies that spread too quickly. The more we allow them to be silenced, the more we put ourselves at risk.
