Few victims of public shyness have become as well known as Mr. Cronk, the New Brunswicker who contracted coronavirus during a business trip.
He initially had no symptoms, so he does not have to isolate himself upon his return.
Nine days later, he showed some symptoms and tested positive for the coronavirus, and the health department began contact detection. After the local news media did a story about a frustrated shop owner who did not believe that his staff had been exposed to the virus, Mr. Cronk worried that he would be considered a source of exposure because he visited the store.
“Saint John is very small,” he said. “I knew it was a matter of time before my name would be pronounced.” That’s why he approached the CBC network to “get the story right before chats came around.” To his knowledge, none of his contacts tested positive, and he was never given tickets by the police for violating public regulations, he said.
After that, a video clip from his Instagram account promoting his marijuana supply industry, “Cronk Grow Nutrients”, made the rounds on Twitter. In it, Mr. Cronk said he “can’t taste a thing at the moment” and outlined the many trips he made this month. Many assumed that he had deliberately spread the virus.
The optics and timing were terrible: as the memes multiplied, the province’s top doctor announced an increase in cases, and the prime minister declared a repression of Christmas travel and gatherings. Online is mr. Cronk is considered the chief infector of New Brunswick.
“There was no lesson to be learned,” he said. Cronk said. “I am ashamed without any shame.”
Historically, stigma and shame have followed pandemics faithfully, says David Barnes, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the history of infectious diseases and epidemics. During the plague in Europe, Jewish people became convenient scapegoats. Barnes blamed the working class Irish people during the cholera epidemic in Britain in the 19th century.
Recently, gay men and Haitians were stigmatized during the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
“We make ourselves feel safer and better by associating illnesses with people who are not like us, doing things we do not do, or who come from other places than us,” he said. Barnes said. “We should not be surprised.”