An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease

234 Pages·2014·0.693 MB·English

by  Jon D Lee

An Epidemic of Rumors

An Epidemic of
Rumors
How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease
Jon D. Lee
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Logan
© 2014 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by Utah State University Press
An imprint of University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
The Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part,
by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan
State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern
Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University.
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover design by Dan Miller
ISBN: 978-0-87421-928-9 (paper)
ISBN: 978-0-87421-929-6 (e-book)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Jon D., author.
An epidemic of rumors : how stories shape our perceptions of disease / Jon D. Lee.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-87421-928-9 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-87421-929-6 (ebook)
1. Epidemics. 2. Epidemics—Social aspects. 3. Communicable diseases—Public opinion—
Psychological aspects. I. Title.
RA649.L44 2013
614.4—dc23
2013033548
Cover illustration: Photograph of Earth © MarcelClemens/Shutterstock; photograph of mask
© Jinga/Shutterstock. Photo composite by Dan Miller.
For Lynnette and Joshua

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction The Yellow Brick Road 1
1 Chronicle of a Health Panic 8
2 SARS and AIDS: A Comparison of Etiological Legends 58
3 We Gather Together: SARS and Public Space 74
4 Private Actions in Public Spaces: SARS and Paradigm
Violations 91
5 “Please Receive Communion through Your Hands”: Personal and
Communal Mediation of Stigma in the 2003 SARS Epidemic 104
6 The Cause and the Cure: Folk Medicine and SARS 119
7 This Little Virus Went to Market: A Comparison of H1N1
Narratives 139
8 Full Circle: The Recycling of Disease Narratives 169
Epilogue . . . And the World Moved On? 182
Appendix A Contribution toward a Typology of Disease Narratives 187
References 192
About the Author 215
Index 216

Acknowledgments
Writing any list such as this is stressful, to say the least. I began research-
ing this project while working towards my doctoral degree in Folklore at
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), and completed my first
draft roughly five years later. In that time I no doubt discussed my various
and ever-changing ideas with hundreds of people. Dozens more helped me
in subtler ways. It takes a village to raise a child, as the saying goes, and it
took the support and encouragement of everyone around me to help cre-
ate this work. The impulse to therefore include in this section anyone and
everyone I’ve talked to since March of 2003 is strong.
More stressful still, after narrowing down this list of contributors, is
the task of placing them into some sort of order. Whose name should be
first? Will I offend anyone by placing their name last? Or by leaving them
out altogether, even if by accident? To this last question I can only say, I
tried my best to include everyone, and if a name is not on this list it is only
due to my oversight, and not because I did not appreciate what that person
did for me.
As for ranking names by importance, any such feat would be self-
defeating. I cannot say, for the most part, that one person helped me more
than another. Like the butterfly in Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder,”
the removal of any one person from the history of this project could result
in catastrophe. The lists of people that make up the rest of this section will
therefore be random, written down as they occurred to me, with no differ-
entiations made as to importance or usefulness.
Save one. I met my wife, Lynnette, only a few months before beginning
this project. She has, in faith and love beyond my comprehension, remained
beside me throughout my struggle to bring this work to light, offering con-
dolences where necessary and, as was more often the case, Drill-Sergeant-
like encouragement during my periods of sloth and torpor. For putting up
with me (and putting me up, given my graduate student’s salary), I will
never adequately be able to express my gratitude. Thank you, my love.
In random order, I also wish to thank the following people.
None of this could have been possible—quite literally—without the
time and space volunteered by my interviewees: Jennifer, Angel, Rosita,