What drives us to blame the marginalized for epidemics?
Friday, April 17, 2020 - 09:10
in Health & Medicine
Epidemics often bring a search for scapegoats, with anti-Asian harassment in the wake of COVID-19 the latest example. Likewise, ideas circulate that different races also differ in their susceptibility to the disease, evidenced by a myth that blacks were immune to the virus. Both are subjects familiar to Rana Hogarth, a history professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who teaches the history of Western medicine and African American history. She spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.