Stop the COVID Shaming!
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2021
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For many people who contract the coronavirus, shame is an underreported side-effect. Its symptoms are intense bewilderment about the cause of infection, reluctance to engage with healthcare systems, and discomfort disclosing the diagnosis to friends and family. The internal dynamic is likely reinforced by the public shaming that follows news stories about crowds of spring breakers not following social distancing rules. Or the Instagram account dedicated to calling out parties and gatherings. Or the tweets about how people who dine indoors are selfish morons.
Shaming others “can function as a way to distance yourself from the fear, the terror, or any uncomfortable feeling you have by placing the badness on someone else,” says Dr. Deeba Ashraf, a psychoanalyst at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. “We can feel this illusion of safety, which is born out of shaming another group.”
In this bonus episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, Associate Producer Molly Schwartz interviews Ashraf about the psychological effects of COVID shaming, the impacts on public health, and some tips for dealing with feelings of shame and stigma.
This interview is part of Molly’s big feature about COVID shaming and its historical parallels in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Read the full story at www.motherjones.com.
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Jamila King in Brooklyn, and this is another bonus interview to add a dose of thoughtfulness |
| 0:06.6 | to your week. |
| 0:10.5 | If you've spent any time on social media during the pandemic, you've probably seen some |
| 0:15.1 | COVID-shaming. |
| 0:16.5 | The person tweeting photos of a stranger who's not wearing a mask, or the Instagram posts |
| 0:22.0 | showing parties on Fire Island, or the YouTube videos of spring breakers, parting like |
| 0:27.0 | it's 2019, the naming and shaming might seem to be in the spirit of public health, but |
| 0:33.0 | it actually goes against leading public health strategies. |
| 0:37.1 | People are less likely to get tested, disclose symptoms, or participate in contact tracing |
| 0:42.3 | if they feel ashamed about their behaviors. |
| 0:45.6 | In this episode, our associate producer Molly Schwartz talked to Dr. Deepa Ashraf, a psychoanalyst |
| 0:51.4 | at the Menendure Clinic, a leading specialty psychiatric hospital in Houston about how feelings |
| 0:56.9 | of shame, guilt, and stigma have played into the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 1:01.5 | It's part of a big feature by Molly on the website right now, which you can check out |
| 1:06.6 | at motherjones.com. |
| 1:08.8 | You've heard a lot about the physical toll of COVID-19. |
| 1:11.4 | Today, the psychological toll of COVID-shame. |
| 1:16.2 | Here's Molly in conversation with Deepa Ashraf. |
| 1:26.3 | Dr. Deepa Ashraf, so as you know, I want to talk to you about shame. |
| 1:31.1 | What is it and what purpose does it serve? |
| 1:33.9 | So shame is really an intense feeling or experience that you are unworthy and unacceptable to |
| 1:43.2 | others and unacceptable in capable of belonging to others. |
... |
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