From Hyperallergic: “I had always assumed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was a voice that could be trusted to guide Americans through the present global pandemic, save for its flip-flopping position on the efficacy of wearing face masks in public. After all, I had shared the CDC’s safety guidelines concerning the novel coronavirus with students in my Asian art history classes before we made the transition to virtual learning. Instead, it was with a mixture of shock and disbelief that I saw my colleague Michele Matteini’s Facebook post about a Chinese textile gracing the cover of the May 2020 issue of the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. The cover image had been posted to the CDC’s Instagram feed and the comments section was flooded with expressions of outrage and concern at the inappropriate use of a Chinese work of art on the cover of a journal issue devoted to scholarly articles on COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. With this editorial decision, the CDC seemed to side with politicians and public figures, including our president, who have publicly characterized the novel coronavirus as the “Chinese” or “Wuhan” virus and by doing so, contribute to a recent wave of xenophobia directed against Asian-Americans….
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