COLEGIO DE STA.

TERESA DE AVILA
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
6 Kingfisher St., Zabarte Subd., Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches
Quezon City 1124 Philippines

GLOBAL TERRORISM
Terrorist Attacks against Covid-19

CASE STUDY

BY

CANEZARES, KATRINA BHEA N.

BSTM 3-2
 COLEGIO DE STA. TERESA DE AVILA
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
6 Kingfisher St., Zabarte Subd., Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches
Quezon City 1124 Philippines

BRIEF SUMMARY

At the end of 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began in China. The World
Health Organization was notified by the Chinese government of the discovery of a new virus; however,
the virus spread throughout China and eventually the rest of the world before the health authorities
could fully gather data on its characteristics. This was true even though early containment and
management efforts, such as social distancing, isolation, and other non-pharmaceutical measures, were
intended to slow the pandemic's exponential growth. The first terrorist assault linked to COVID-19 that is
listed in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) happened in Hong Kong on January 27, 2020, and it
involved the use of a small homemade bomb against a nearby hospital. Using a small homemade bomb
against a local hospital, the first terrorist attack connected to COVID-19 that is documented in the Global
Terrorism Database (GTD) took place in Hong Kong on January 27, 2020.

SITUATION ANALYSIS AND SCOPE

"The threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political,
economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation" is how the GTD defines a
terrorist attack.9 In order to be taken into consideration for inclusion in the GTD, all three of the
following attributes must be present:

1. The incident must be intentional;

2. The incident must entail some level of violence or immediate threat of violence; and
3. The perpetrators of the incidents must be subnational actors.

In addition, two of the three requirements listed below must be met for an entry to be added to the
database:

1. The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal;
2. There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a
larger audience than the immediate victims; and/or
3. The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities.

There is no precise definition of COVID-19-related occurrences in the GTD codebook. 9 The following
protocol was used for this study. Terrorist assaults against healthcare and pharmaceutical facilities, as
well as against patients and carriers were evaluated. These attacks have to be connected to COVID-19,
either in favor of or against COVID-19 isolation or therapy, in order to qualify for inclusion. Events
involving politicians, government agencies, law enforcement, and the military, and healthcare
professionals trying to control the epidemic (via testing, isolation, containment, or lockdown
procedures) were also covered.
 COLEGIO DE STA. TERESA DE AVILA
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
6 Kingfisher St., Zabarte Subd., Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches
Quezon City 1124 Philippines

MAJOR PROBLEM AND CAUSE

Utilizing reviews of grey literature, cases where there was not enough information to determine whether
they were related to COVID-19 were investigated further. In cases where there was still inadequate
information, it was excluded. Moreover, incidents classified as "Doubt Terrorism Proper" were
disregarded. These are occurrences when it was unclear whether they had anything to do with terrorism
specifically. The primary researcher manually examined each input to determine whether or not to
include it based on the incident description. A second author (LM) went over each entry and the
instances that weren't included. A third author (DB) provided advice on the ultimate decision in the
event of uncertainty or discrepancies. All of the gathered data were exported and descriptively examined
using Excel spreadsheets (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA).

A further noteworthy event involved an active member of the Canadian military services who was
motivated by the far-right driving his car through the gates of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's house at
Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. According to sources, he shared conspiracy theories from the far
right, including QAnon, online.

Actually, only 11 incidents—nine fatalities and two injuries—were attributable to communist and left-
wing extremist groups. Islamic factions came in second, with four fatalities and one injury, and separatist
factions came in third, with five fatalities and six injuries. However, for most of the victims, it was not
possible to identify a particular group of perpetrators. There were just four lone actor attacks reported to
the GTD, including the attacker from Canada and the unaffiliated Belgian who tossed a petrol bomb at
the Belgian Parliament building's fence in Brussels, Belgium. The individual claimed, upon being placed
under arrest, that the attack was a protest against the way the government was treating the COVID-19
outbreak. In an attempt to have a locomotive collide with the US Navy Hospital Ship Mercy in California,
another attacker derailed a locomotive. The man was worried that the hospital ship might have been
moored to distribute COVID-19 or to aid in a government takeover, so he tried to "wake people up"
about its existence.

As a result, neither the pharmaceutical business nor patients nor health care were the focus of these
instances. Nonetheless, they satisfied the requirements to be included in this series and were targeted at
government pandemic response.
 COLEGIO DE STA. TERESA DE AVILA
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
6 Kingfisher St., Zabarte Subd., Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches
Quezon City 1124 Philippines

IMPACTS TO TOURISM INDUSTRY OF THE DESTINATION

Terrorism poses a serious threat to the economies of countries, including damage to property and a loss
of foreign exchange earnings. It causes disruptions to business, which leads to the relocation of tourism-
related and related sectors' operations. The country's stock market's demise and the recovery period are
the other main worries. Instead, the nations under the influence of bad (terrorist) powers would
prioritize defiance spending over public health, education, and healthcare. Tourist spots are frequently
targeted in an effort to instill fear in visitors visiting areas with high rates of terrorism. Developing tourist
areas will suffer huge losses from the multiplying effects of tourism and its tangible and intangible
services.

SOLUTION

Create communication plans to avoid and prevent the dissemination of incorrect information,
Speculation theories about COVID-19 that date back to Terrorism and violent extremist organizations
may attempt to take advantage of any chance to weaken the authority's perceived credibility. A plan
should address the subsequent components: ▪ innovative means of communication; ▪ suitable channels
for awareness raising or information campaigns; ▪ outreach in regions with limited access to the internet.
Strengthen government reactions to misinformation. All actions must respect the right to free speech
and human rights in order to prevent feeding extreme propaganda. Remember that Article 19 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights both uphold the right to freedom of expression.

OUTCOME

Initiatives for development and peacebuilding play a major role in preventing violent extremism in many
nations. Activities halted because of COVID-19 could leave a void where terrorist organizations might try
to damage the reputation of law enforcement and development stakeholders. By conceiving serving as
service providers, giving food and necessities to "at risk" groups, some of whom are violent extremists,
and to broaden their base of support and recruits, terrorist organizations may try to win people over
with gratitude and trust. International counterterrorism efforts now heavily rely on training programs
and other forms of international security support. Cut and stopped funding for military training programs
and police forces may have a negative impact on local security services' ability to combat terrorism.
 COLEGIO DE STA. TERESA DE AVILA
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
6 Kingfisher St., Zabarte Subd., Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches
Quezon City 1124 Philippines

PERSONAL INSIGHTS

This GTD study, which found 165 COVID-19-related terrorist acts in 2020, shows that there were
additional hazards for hospitals, testing and quarantine centers, humanitarian workers, and COVID-19
patients as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. In 2021 and 2022, vaccination centers are expected to
become a new target for terrorism due to COVID-19. All global COVID-19-related terrorist attacks that
took place in 2020 that were directed towards patients, medical personnel, or any other actors involved
in the pandemic containment response were looked for in the GTD. Temporal aspects, target type, attack
and weapon type, attacker type, number of victims or hostages, and location were all analyzed. Events
that were unclear as to whether they were solely terrorist acts were not included. Movement
restrictions will probably lead to a shift in how terrorist organizations plan their assaults. Critical
infrastructure, like hospitals or supermarkets, may be targeted instead of the traditional public spaces
where people used to congregate, such marketplaces, public squares, and houses of worship.

REFERENCES

Katrina C. 2020 “National Library Of Medicine” accessed December 4, 2023 at

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9885425/

Katrina C. 2020 “impact of covid-19 on violent extremism and terrorism” accessed December 4, 2023 at
https://unitar.org/sites/default/files/media/file/Factsheet%20CT%20Printed.pdf