Pandemics and social stigma: Who's next? Italy's experience with COVID-19

none5noOn December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization the first case of what is now known as COVID-19, a respiratory syndrome caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Four months later, the virus caused a pandemic that has changed the lives of billions of people. In the weeks after the announcement of the first COVID-19 case, while some Asian countries (i.e. South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan) promptly equipped themselves to face a probable national outbreak, most Western nations minimized the risks posed by the virus and limited their actions to travel bans, whose effectiveness is still debated. Italy, one of the first and most severely hit countries in the Western world, was among them. However, discussions on whether to admit people coming from the outbreak epicenter in China raged immediately not only at the political level but also on the media and social media, paired with xenophobic comments on Chinese wet markets and culinary habits.noneAdja K.; Golinelli D.; Lenzi J.; Fantini M.P.; Wu E.Adja K.; Golinelli D.; Lenzi J.; Fantini M.P.; Wu E