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Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only An Epidemic of Rumors Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only An Epidemic of Rumors How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease Jon D. Lee UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Logan Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only © 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.Copyright Photo composite University by Dan PressMiller. of Colorado For educational use only For Lynnette and Joshua Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only 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 Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only 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, Copyright University Press of Colorado For educational use only x Acknowledgments Luis, Mike, Jonathan, Annie, Mayee, Justin, Ann, Seny, Benjamin, and Heather. For answering my questions, for providing me with data, and for making me realize new areas of research that I wasn’t aware of, I am for- ever indebted. In addition, several friends gleefully and torturously filled my inboxes with more jokes, conspiracy theories, cures, and other narrative forms than I could possibly analyze. Kristian, Cara Nina, Christine, Lynne, Philip, and Gillian are most notable in this light. My former roommate Robert “Robbie D” Dennis was instrumental in not only helping me procure a place to stay while I conducted my research in Toronto, Canada, but for introducing me to one of my informants, and for providing me with bibliographic resources. Robert’s sister, Hollie, and her husband, Michael Peter Carter, were kind enough to offer me a bed and an Internet connection in Toronto, and more importantly, free use of their coffee maker. My friends and fellow graduate students in the Folklore Department at MUN also deserve to be mentioned, and none more so than that fond fable of folklorists, Lynne S. McNeill and Andrea Kitta. Together, the three of us suffered the long road East, and logged hundreds of hours of encourage- ment, diversion, ideational dissection, and support. Without Lynne, I could not have written sections of chapter six; without Andrea, I would not have survived theory class. Many of the professors in MUN’s Folklore Department buttressed me at one time or another, and none so much as Dr. Diane Goldstein, disserta- tion advisor extraordinaire, who challenged me at every turn and forced me to greatly hone my mental skewers. Committee members Dr. Paul Smith and Dr. Cory Thorne provided additional assistance, slipping relevant mail- ings and printouts into my mailbox and otherwise providing new ideas and sources of material. Dr. Martin Lovelace, who served as Department Head for most of the years I was at MUN, offered constant encouragement, and more importantly, believed in me enough as an educator to consistently offer me courses to teach. In addition, Dr. Lovelace was generous enough to step in last-minute, and at considerable cost to his free time, as a committee member when circumstances left a different member unable to continue. Dr. Hiscock performed brilliantly in his role as teaching mentor, and offered better bibliographic advice than even my Chicago Manual of Style. Dr. Peter Narváez’s CD Some Good Blues played constantly in the background, as did his theory lectures from Folk 6030. Dr. Diane Tye’s clarifications of proper dissertation format and length kept me buoyant during mental storms. And the patience and grace of departmental secretaries Sharon Cochrane and Cindy TurpinCopyright cannot beUniversity underestimated Press for of keeping Colorado me out of trouble, For educational use only Acknowledgments xi for helping me organize my academic life, and for providing me with the resources I needed to make it from one class to the next. MUN was not the only university to provide me with useful folkloristic mentors. Drs. Jeannie Thomas, Steve Siporin, and Barre Toelken of Utah State University are singularly responsible for getting me interested in folk- lore in the first place. Dr. Mikel Koven has provided excellent information on the publishing world, and both he and Dr. Elliott Oring have given help- ful feedback on conference papers, sometimes providing jaw-dropping alter- nate views of key elements that have forced me to reconsider my theories. And I can only send out a broad thanks to the dozens of folklorists—both professional and student—who have come up to me at conferences and offered positive, unsolicited reviews of my papers. Outside of the academic world, no two people have been more influ- ential and supportive than my parents, David and Jan. Together with my grandmothers—Ruth and Willa—they have provided shoulders strong enough on which to support the world. For assistance both financial and emotional, I offer the following prayer: May your beer be forever cold and never flat. Gracias. I also wish to extend my appreciation to everyone who has ever encour- aged me to write, regardless of genre. Special mention must be given here to Sam Green, Michael Donovan, Bill Holm, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, Primus St. John, J.V. Brummels and Eddie Elfers at Logan House Press, Charles Cuthbertson, Robin Parent, Micah Schicker, Chris Okelberry, Ian Brodie, and Jodi McDavid. Finally, a note for the fallen. Ellen Meloy, Leslie Norris, Bill Holm, Ken Brewer, and Bill Kloefkorn—all wonderful people, all brilliant writers, all fast friends—did not make it to see the completion of this work.