When a sixty-year-old man collapsed outside a popular Thai restaurant near Sydney Chinatown on Tuesday last week, no resuscitation attempts were made.

He had died of an apparent cardiac arrest, however, fears he was infected with coronavirus kept bystanders afar, reported a local tabloid.

The story likened the lack of help to videos and pictures which had emerged showing Chinese citizens allegedly collapsing in the street due to the virus.

As of Friday, there were 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, five recoveries and one unassociated death.

The man who died was not a victim of the virus but rather one of the sinophobic behaviour and fears which have spread in recent weeks it seems.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus was first reported, fake news has traveled far further than the virus, and its aftermath is proving harmful.

In Australia, it has spread in the form of fake press releases issued by nonexistent government departments. These have targeted areas with large Chinese populations and restaurants, prompting responses from government health departments and politicians.

Chinese-owned businesses are feeling the effects, some, mostly restaurants, have decided to shut to cover the financial loss while others operate with minimum staff as some employees are  scared of returning amid the outbreak.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop at fake news or reduced business. For 25-year-old Chinese-Australian journalist and writer Yen-Rong Wong, she wrote on Twitter: “This is the first time I’ve ever felt physically unsafe in Australia because of my race. I thought we were over this shit but obviously not.”

Wong isn’t alone. Chinese citizens and people of Chinese descent around the world have reported increased hostility, accounts of discrimination, racism and xenophobic behavior in the last few weeks amid the outbreak.

Meanwhile at home in Hong Kong, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, editor of Asian Cha Journal, tweeted: “I can understand people's frustration about the current #coronavirus situation (I'm frustrated & worried) but this portrayal of mainlanders as zombie-like is offensive & unnecessary. Can we resist the urge to generalise & stigmatise a whole nation of people?”

Director of Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) James Laurenceson, who has seen increased hostility towards Chinese Australians as China’s influence in Australia continues to grow says, “these reports are not a one-off anecdote”.

In times of crisis, amid fear and panic, he says a lack of leadership and questionable quarantining of Australians who were in Wuhan hasn’t helped.

On Monday, a plane carrying 243 Australians fleeing Wuhan arrived on Christmas island, the home of Australia’s off-shore detention centres. On Thursday, 35 more Australians joined them.

On this decision, Laurenceson notes, “I don’t think they’re racist in their policy response, but I haven’t seen another country do the same thing to their own.”

In a time where people of Chinese ancestry around the world are feeling discriminated against, treated like outsiders and blamed for a virus, leadership is as important as is calling out baseless xenophobic behavior.

Instead, the job is being left to journalists, academics, institute directors like Laurenceson in the form of opinion editorials as well as international students like Katie, a former Wisconsin and Hong Kong student, who asked only to be referred to her first name.

A Facebook post she wrote on January 30 detailing live updates of the virus and information of her experience from Henan province in China has been shared 289 times, liked by almost 500 people and received 86 comments.

Katie says she felt compelled to share information after witnessing several memes make light of the virus, comments blaming Chinese people and some saying it “is deserved”.

“Some people are using their personal feelings about the Chinese government to respond to the virus outbreak, which is irrational, rude and disrespectful,” she says.

She notes there are thousands of people across China, like her father, who instead of spending Chinese New Year with family are on call working long hours in factories to produce medical supplies, contain the virus or treat victims.

“I have friends who are doctors and who are fighting on the front line right now,” she says.

Chinese Australian architect Shuwei Zhang, a former resident of a Queensland suburb targeted by fake news who was stuck in Guangzhou until Saturday, says people aren’t simply paranoid about the virus but being taken away and confined with potential infected victims.

“I think being inside is affecting people because they read everything on the internet, which essentially drives them to hysteria,” he says.

Laurenceson concedes there’s a lot of “insensitivity towards people who are in an extraordinarily difficult situation through no fault of their own”.

“At the moment it seems clear that the greatest danger in Australia isn’t from the spread of the virus—it’s from behaviour driven by fear, not facts.”

The author is an Australia-based freelance writer. 

The views do not necessarily represent those of China Daily.