I think the point is that there is a proper name assigned to the virus: COVID-19. A US journalist spotted that Trump had crossed out the correct name and replaced it with "Chinese". Apart from the fact that upsets scientific pendants like me, unfortunately Trump does not distinguish between Chinese people as an ethnic group and the Chinese government officials, who were probably local rather than central government ones, that tried to suppress the original reports by Dr Li in Wuhan around December 2019. This has led to Chinese people being abused by some in western countries, even those that were born or live in western countries such as the US or UK. Once again, Trump fails to see the consequences of his actions - or is deliberately demonising others to cover his own shortcomings. There does seems good evidence that COVID-19 was caused by a species jumping, possibly from bats, to humans at a live animal market in China. Given our own food scares because of poor animal husbandry controls - for example, BSE or condemned horse meat entering the food chain - we aren't in a position to be too judgemental. We should remember that many Chinese are Buddhist vegetarians; in fact the origins of fake meat made from seitan and tofu go back to Buddhist Chinese cooking in the middle ages. (COVID-19 is another great case for a veggie/vegan diet.) Trump is using the term "Chinese virus" to mask the fact he misunderstood the seriousness of what he originally claimed was a hoax, and may have even suggested it was a Democrat plot to destroy the economy before November's presidential elections. As pointed out elsewhere on this forum, Germany currently has a lower mortality rate then elsewhere: perhaps one needs to looks at an inverse correlation of death rates to leadership IQs? Still, not to worry, Mike Pence and his far right evangelists are praying for us all ... but seriously, forget whether Trump is a racist, Ed is correct, we need to hold our own politicians to account and ensure those test kits and protective equipment gets to the NHS expeditiously.
Michael Ixer ● 2271d