PANDEMIC POLITICS

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The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) global pandemic has become a partisan issue in the United States. Items register the belief of some that the pandemic is a hoax perpetrated to deny re-election to Donald Trump. Others, on both left and right, warn that it gives government too much power over people’s personal lives, enabling the emergence of an authoritarian 1984-like regime. Pop items include mockery of Trump for promoting medical misinformation and neglecting to respond to the crisis in a timely or appropriate way. Anti-Trump items dehumanize Trump as the virus. Some echo Trump’s continuing characterization of the virus as “Chinese” and use the racist nickname “Kung Flu,” which has contributed to an upsurge in xenophobic attacks on Asian Americans during the pandemic.