Lunar New Year is the busiest celebration at Chinatown’s Dragon City Mall.

On Saturday, the mall was “busier than ever before,” said Tonny Louie, chair of the Chinatown Business Improvement Area.

Then, news broke that the first confirmed case of a novel coronavirus was diagnosed in Toronto. “People got word … there was one confirmation right in the evening at Sunnybrook. On Sunday …we actually had a cancellation of one of the performers,” scheduled for that evening’s celebration, Louie said.

“From that day onward Chinatown has been quiet.”

There are fears that the coronavirus will spark the same public panic and xenophobia towards the Chinese community that swept Toronto following the SARS outbreak in 2003.

“It’s not the normal business level,” Louie said, speaking to the Star at Grossman’s Tavern, his bar and music venue in the heart of Chinatown. “It seems to be that people are staying home. Any time you have a new problem, a new virus, and you don’t have a lot of facts — people have a lot of fear and tend to stay home.”

Louie noted that the effect of this new virus on Chinatown isn’t as extreme as SARS 17 years ago, but said “it’s human nature” to be fearful of the virus.

SARS profoundly impacted Chinese-owned small businesses at the time. In 2003, business owners reported that once-long lineups had diminished, with Scarborough’s Ruby Chinese Restaurant telling the Star they had seen a 70 per cent drop in customers. In the downtown core, dim sum restaurants that typically hosted scores of diners sat empty.

On Dundas Street West, Kim Lam is behind the counter at her shop, Great China Herbs Centre. Lam’s store, which specializes in herbs and traditional Chinese medicine, has been operating for 54 years and weathered the SARS crisis.

The biggest change this time, Lam said, is the speed with which misinformation about the virus is spreading. “This time because of social media (news travels) so fast. And some is true, some is not.

“It’s hard to tell (what’s real).”

Lam recounted reading messages on WhatsApp recently that said there were 11 confirmed cases in Toronto — a drastically inflated number compared to the two cases actually diagnosed.

Lam said that her business hasn’t suffered as large a hit as it did during the SARS outbreak.

“It’s not as bad as SARS. It might take a bit longer (for people to come in) but it should be OK.”

But this should be her busy season. Compared to last year, Lam said, business isn’t quite the same.

Officials have a handle on coronavirus in Toronto, but not on the spread of misinformation and xenophobia starting to target Chinese-Canadians, city and health officials said Wednesday.

“I hope that we do not have a repeat of SARS — not just the virus, but the virus of racism,” Avvy Go, director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, told a news conference at Toronto City Hall.

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Go recalled Chinese-Canadians being laid off over SARS fears during the deadly 2003 outbreak, and some fellow lawyers refusing to enter immigration courtrooms containing people from China.

Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease expert who helped lead Toronto’s response to SARS, said: “We made a number of mistakes during SARS. One of them was not paying enough attention, not managing well enough the epidemic of fear. It is critically important that we don’t repeat that because a great deal of harm was done.”

They joined Toronto Mayor John Tory, health board chair Councillor Joe Cressy and others in urging Torontonians to read coronavirus information and advice from experts and avoid spreading misinformation that can breed racism.

“We can’t let fear or ignorance triumph over our values of community, understanding, respect and rejection of discrimination or stigmatization,” Tory told reporters.

The local appearance of coronavirus, which started in Wuhan, China, has triggered social media jokes about cancelled dim sum plans. More organized responses include a petition asking York Region schools to force children into 17-day quarantine if their families recently visited China, and a quarantine request to some parents from two GTA private schools.

Fear is understandable, Tory said, but the science says such actions are unnecessary and create stigma against the 300,000 Torontonians with Chinese heritage.

“This is hurting our own children in Canada. It will increase the chance of them being bullied,” Dr. Joseph Wong, physician and philanthropist, said of coronavirus misinformation and fear.

“There is so much panic in the community and people are not acting with evidence and fact.”

For their parts, both Louie and Lam stressed that it’s vital to listen to officials instead of social media.

“Don’t listen to what (social media) has to offer — listen to the board of health, listen to the professionals,” Louie said.

Information is the best weapon against racism, Louie said. “We need more transparency. I think we need more advice from the health department to eliminate the fear and the guessing game about what this virus is all about.”

Louie urged people with questions to contact the hotline set up by Toronto Public Health. The hotline is available at 416-338-7600 weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Residents are encouraged to reach out with any questions.

And if you’re really fearful of getting sick, Louie said, “just stay home for a few days. Pretend this is a big snow storm.”

With files from Rob Ferguson

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