Julia Marcus, of Harvard Medical School, explained on Twitter Friday how stigma around the virus is “toxic” to public health.
“Without federal support, it feels like ‘personal responsibility’ is what will save us—so of course people are trying to shame each other into healthier behavior,” she wrote. “But shame and blame perpetuate stigma, which can have the *opposite* of the intended effect.”
Under the banner of “personal responsibility,” individuals are told to “do the right thing” and called “selfish” and “reckless” if they don’t wear a mask or practice social distancing. But, Marcus emphasized, that results in individuals who contract COVID-19 as being seen, or feeling themselves to be, “bad, careless, deserving of punishment.”
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