The Wuhan/Chinese Virus

Someone got a snap of President Trump’s notes from a recent press conference discussing the Chinese Coronavirus Pandemic. During the past few pressers, the President has been plagued by idiots in the White House press corps grilling and excoriating him because he says the pandemic is caused by a “Chinese virus.”

This, they say, is racist, offensive to Chinese-Americans, encourages  xenophobia and “puts Asian-Americans at risk.”

They continue to berate President Trump, despite the fact that they themselves for months have called the virus either the Wuhan coronavirus or the Chinese coronavirus! See this link for a montage.

While they were referring to the virus as the Wuhan or Chinese virus, nobody brought a charge of racism against them or claimed that using such terminology amounted to a dog whistle for bigots and racists. I wonder why?

Below is a list of diseases that I compiled today, with the approximate dates they were first recognized. All of these diseases were named after geographical locations. You may recognize some or all of them. You may even have, like me, suffered through some of them.

African Sleeping Sickness 14th century

Japanese Encephalitis 1500s

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis 1800s

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever 1800s

Eastern (U.S.) Equine Encephalitis 1831

Russian Influenza 1889

Spanish Influenza 1918

Western (U.S.) Equine Encephalitis 1930

Rift Valley Fever 1931

St. Louis Encephalitis 1933

West Nile Virus Disease 1937

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever 1944

Zika Fever 1954

Asian Influenza 1957

Hong Kong Influenza 1968

Lyme Disease 1975

Victoria Influenza 1976

Ebola Virus Disease 1976

Russian Influenza 1977

New Caledonia Influenza 1999

Fujian Influenza 2003

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) 2012

Bourbon Virus Disease 2014

Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic 2019

Texas, Massachusetts, Perth, Michigan, California, Brisbane, Phuket, Switzerland, Japanese, Aussie, Shanghai are other types of influenza that were given geographical names, which are still in use.

It’s likely that I haven’t found all of the various diseases that afflict human beings and which were named for geographical locations, but these instances are enough to prove that it’s a long-standing practice to name novel viruses or new epidemics of previously known viruses after the area of the world where they first appeared or were first identified.

There is nothing racist about it.

Places are not races. 

Something doesn’t instantly become racist, after having been done by others for centuries, simply because President Trump does it now.

The Wuhan China Coronavirus is plaguing us enough already. We don’t need an additional plague of stupidity, spite, and divisiveness.

Stop already!

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