Anatomy of Stigma: Understanding COVID-19

Taking the lead from Erving Goffman’s celebrated work on stigma, this article attempts to examine ‘stigma as process’ (the process of stigmatisation), delineating the conditions most fecund for the crystallisation of ‘stigma as product’. These factors, appearing almost infallible, make an individual highly vulnerable, non-rational and lonely, with his or her survival instinct climbing the summit. Selfishness reigns, as the cause is located in an external factor which becomes the enemy. In fact, the infected comrades-in-arms become the foes. The lower strata of society, the working force in the tertiary sector of the economy, the poverty-stricken and minorities are stigmatised as potential carriers of the virulent virus. The realisation that the coronavirus has no soul, no life, no discretion and can grip anyone is pushed away. One panacea to eradicate the stigma is to think in terms of the reversal of roles and with the ethos of empathy. We should not forget that those who were stigmatised as disease spreaders are saving the lives of others by donating their plasma.