Stigma, Shame and COVID-19: “They won’t even touch the money we touched”

15, April 2020 | Bangladesh

Authors:

Abstract

Pandemics are frightening and highly disrupt events that not only cause an insurmountable number of deaths but destroy social systems and fabric that bind communi�es. From global fear, there are local consequences. A certain level of fear can be useful especially for policymakers to bring about desired behavioral changes to control the outbreak. But fear is also the basis of untrus�ng and s�gma�zing behaviors that have a nega�ve impact on individuals and society. This research study therefore aims to explore how the na�onal discourse around COVID-19 has given rise to s�gma�zing behaviors in Bangladesh. This study looked into where s�gma�zing behaviors emerged and how the behaviors transpired in everyday life, especially against those who were either perceived to be or were COVID-19 posi�ve.