Covid-19 Shaming; How The Blame Game Hurts Us All
Stigmatizing coronavirus infection inhibits society’s ability to stop the spread
“Which child has Covid-19? Who gave it to who? Were they wearing masks? Have her parents been good? We are reopening schools amidst a high number of COVID-19 cases. The chances are increasing that every parent will be faced with a potential child coronavirus exposure.
Covid-19 shaming and finger-pointing reduce our ability to fight the pandemic.
Childhood Covid-19 infections create a conflict between the personal right to privacy vs. the public health need for disclosure. The infected children deserve privacy, but other children’s parents need to make immediate quarantine and testing decisions.
When parents hear about a potential coronavirus exposure, we can not play the blame game. Instead, parental attention must be on risk assessment to determine the need for testing and home quarantine.
The potential risk of coronavirus shaming hit me last week when my daughter was exposed during a socially distanced basketball practice. My phone exploded with panicked parental text messages.
Everyone wanted to know, “who had Covid-19,” and “what was the extent of the exposure?”
