© Chinatown Community Development Center A cake from AA Bakery

The panic over coronavirus reached the US last month, as 11 people in the country have fallen ill from the disease (as of publication time). Four of those sickened are in the Bay Area, which means rumors about local outbreaks are inevitable. In San Francisco, bars and restaurants in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood have been particularly hard hit over rumors regarding the sickness, but business owners in the area say that patrons have nothing to fear.

KPIX reports that a rumor spread by users of Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp sank business at popular Chinatown pastry shop AA Bakery and Cafe. The Stockton Street bakery, which is known for its pork buns, egg tarts, and sponge cakes, typically boasts lines that stretch out the door.

But on Tuesday, those lines were gone, after WhatsApp users claimed that an AA worker had coronavirus. “Somebody told me yesterday, ‘Wow, what’s going on Henry?’” owner Henry Chang said Tuesday, denying that any of his workers were ill.

Writing for Eater, Jenny G. Zhang suggests that this isn’t just a local phenomenon. “The outbreak has had a decidedly dehumanizing effect,” she writes, “reigniting old strains of racism and xenophobia that frame Chinese people as uncivilized, barbaric ‘others’ who bring with them dangerous, contagious diseases.”

San Francisco has a rich history of associating illness with Chinatown, dating all the way back to the 1900s, when fears of the bubonic plague spurred city officials to briefly quarantine the neighborhood, a lockdown that in turn spurred area residents to avoid treatment over fears of how they might be treated. (There’s a great book about this period in local lore called Black Death at the Golden Gate. Highly recommended!)

At the time of this writing, 20,000 cases of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have been recorded around the world, and 427 people have died. Thus far, no San Francisco residents have been diagnosed with the disease (though a husband and wife from San Benito County are have been transferred to UCSF — which specializes in complex and infectious illnesses — for treatment of the sickness).

But despite those facts, fears of coronavirus have caused bars and restaurants in Chinatown to suffer. According to Chinese Merchants Association spokesperson Edward Siu, foot traffic in the area has dropped by 50 percent since coronavirus hit local headlines, and traffic at food venues has been particularly hard hit. But according to San Francisco health officials — who confirmed Tuesday that Chinatown’s New Year’s parade would go on as planned — people should ignore unsourced information and stick with verifiable facts. “We are safe and we are healthy,” Siu says. “Don’t worry about whatever the rumors say. Chinatown is safe.”