The Rise of Fear in Vietnam during the Coronavirus Pandemic: Causes from Different Perspectives

Vietnam is considered to have been one of the most successful countries in implementing preventive measures against the Covid-19 virus. There were many forces that contributed to this achievement, including the fear of infectious diseases that has a long history in the country. This fear led people to maximize preventive measures to ensure their safety, even though in some cases it came with an economic cost or curtailment of individual freedoms. This paper proposes that fear also played a large role in people’s willingness to accept the government’s pandemic prevention policies and thus contributed to the success of Vietnam’s battle against the pandemic. This paper looks at contemporary challenges as significant causes of this fear. The paper aims to explore the core causes of fear, the forces that reinforced the fear, and the most affected social groups. It is based on a review of publications, news on mass media, prevention policies applied during the Covid-19 pandemic, and especially individual interviews with people from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.