The Chinatown in Chicago is still full of red lanterns but lonely, just a cough makes people panic.

At Slurp Slurp noodle shop on Chinatown in Chicago, Illinois, tourists no longer sat around their lunch tables as usual. The security of the nearby school had stuffed the mask in a pocket, ready to take out when it was unsafe.

Even as nCoV spread rapidly around the world and killed more than 1,700 people, mainly in China, the Covid-19 epidemic did not pose much threat to the US, where only 15 cases were reported. The lives of most Americans remain normal, as they are confident that nothing to fear from the epidemic is still far away.

But for a portion of Americans who come from China or travel there often or the health workers responsible for fighting the epidemic, life is being turned upside down for nCoV.

Hundreds of Americans who have been in China feel confused and worried about being isolated for two weeks at military bases. Many Asian-Americans find it uncomfortable to be scrutinized when coughing or sneezing is enough to keep people away.

"Instead of saying 'Get well' or ask 'Are you okay?', They immediately panic, 'said Aretha Deng, 20, an Arizona State University student.

Chicago, home to the busiest airport in the United States, sounded an alarm last month when it spotted female corona virus passengers after their trip to China. This person passed the virus to her husband and became the first human-to-human transmission in the United States.

Even after the couple recovered from the illness and were discharged from the hospital, the city was relentless. Passengers at O'Hare International Airport seem to wear more masks than usual. On the Chinese street in the south of the city, many businesses subject to banning people have recently been to China.

In San Francisco, new immigrants from China say they are worried about the serious health threat their relatives in their homeland face. At the same time, they themselves must face the reaction of fear of those around them in the US.

Yiao Xie, an environmental researcher working for a non-profit organization in San Francisco, returned early to the US on the morning of January 30 after returning to Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China, just before the trips. flying from China to the US to halt operations.

Although Lanzhou was far away from the Wuhan epidemic center, Yiao's colleagues still thought that he should best isolate himself at home for 14 days. Yiao understands their thoughts. Afterwards, he took a walk in the nature reserve near his home to calm down. At the grocery store, Yiao felt the unfamiliar eyes of strangers facing her.

"Some people just look at me. I don't think they hate me or hate me, but they ask 'Why are you wearing a mask? Are you sick?'", Yiao said.

Robert Li, a San Francisco resident, was surfing the phone in a computer store last week when an employee talked to a customer about Covid-19. "Of course, if you eat live bats, you will catch corona virus," Li recalled the employee once said.

"They are making fun of Asian people. This is a racist type when they think Chinese people eat everything," Li said.

News of the Covid-19 epidemic came after the US-China trade war, a confrontation that left many feeling uneasy and worried about the economy. "If you have reason to fear the country and the Chinese, this will make you even more anxious," said Vincent Pan, co-director of China for the Affirmative Action, a civil rights group on anti-discrimination. heard in San Francisco, said. The organization called on the California government to set up a hotline to collect information about bullying or discrimination related to corona virus.

"Epidemics can really turn one group away from another. History has shown that the epidemic has always been the fastest path to stigmatizing a community," Pan said.

In recent weeks across the United States, health officials issued warnings sensitively: trying to protect the public but without causing unnecessary vigilance and antispyware. Since January, local, state and federal health officials have repeatedly repeated the only message that the risk of corona virus infection in the US is low.

"Ethnicity does not affect the transmission of nCoV. History of travel and direct contact with the new infected person is the causative factor," Jeanne Ayersm, Wisconsin health official said last week, after announcing that a Madison city resident became the state's first case.

So far, the corona virus has been largely controlled in the United States, thanks to a federal government decision a few weeks ago: cut flights from China and require a two-week quarantine at military facilities or private homes. with a small number of passengers from this Asian country.

Quarantined Americans said they felt vague about the current situation. Some people say they feel bored and restless, increasingly worried and lonely, but they understand the fear of the community.

Last weekend, Jeffrey Ho, a car mechanic in San Bernardino, California, was taken to the United States from Hubei province, where his wife's family lives, on a flight arranged by the US Department of State. He and more than 170 compatriots from Wuhan are now isolated at Travis Air Force Base, north of San Francisco.

On the one hand, Ho said he did not blame people for being afraid of spreading the virus. When he was at the center of Hubei epidemic, people on the street often kept their distance from others. "They are afraid for their lives. People suspect anyone leaving their apartment building," Ho said.

But on the other hand, Ho shared that his fear of viruses in the US often led to racist tendencies. "I felt like I could become a target," Ho said.

Last week, Eileen Wong, a business consultant in New York whose parents now lives in Hong Kong, boarded a crowded train in Philadelphia with a colleague and had to stand through the 90-minute journey home.

The woman sitting nearby took her eyes off the phone and looked up at Wong and her colleagues, then gasped when she discovered they were Asian-Americans. "She said 'Oh my God' and immediately curled up in her coat," Wong said.

Wong's colleague glanced down and saw the woman rushing to look up Google on her phone: "How scary is the virus?".

In an ethnically diverse area like Manhattan, where Wong lives, she never thought of herself being pushed to the edge. "I grew up here and I do not speak Chinese. I am American but why did this happen to me? They looked at me in amazement. We had no symptoms like sneezing or coughing," he said. so maybe they rely on appearance, "Wong said.