Last Updated on March 18, 2020
In a press conference, US President Donald Trump said that he will not stop referring to the deadly coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus” despite criticisms of racism from various sources.
Many progressive voices and pro-China outlets have condemned any association of the coronavirus with China, despite Covid-19 originating there.
The rationale behind this push to remove any national association to the virus has been to stress that a virus cannot be designated a nationality, sparking a raging social media debate.
In a tweet containing a snippet from a press conference, a female journalist questioned the President on his usage on what has become an inflammatory term.
In the clip, the female journalist begins by opening with: “You keep calling this the ‘Chinese Virus,’ there are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country; your own aide, Secretary , does not use this term, he says ethnicity does not cause the the virus–why do you keep using this?”
Without allowing the journalist to continue her line of questioning, Trump plainly replies: “Because it comes from China.”
Accusations of racism arose, to which Trump says, “It’s not racist at all, no.”
“It comes from China–that’s why. It comes from China, I want to be accurate.”
As President Trump tries to take a question from another reporter, the journalist continues talking.
Trump continued: “I have great love for all of the people from our country, but, as you know, China tried to say, at one point, maybe they’ve stopped now, that it was caused by American soldiers.
“That can’t happen, it’s not going to happen; not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.”
https://twitter.com/CathGroyper/status/1240318526600155140
According to Metro, Trump later insinuated that one of the nicknames used for the coronavirus–‘Kung-Flu’–was not racist, despite probing questioning from journalists who appear to be more concerned with using politically correct labels than direct action for a burgeoning pandemic.
