Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
Some people are arguing that the term "Chinese flu" is not racist--that it is just another case of political correctness from the left. The most famous proponent of this view is, of course, Donald Trump, but the theme goes well beyond him. (See Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism). So, what is wrong with calling it the "Chinese flu" or "Wuhan flu"?
Basically, the answer is that the label invites people to blame the Chinese people for a global epidemic that could have started in any country. We can certainly criticize the Chinese government for its initial attempts to suppress information about the outbreak, but the government is not the people. What has been happening around the world, and especially in the US, is a lot of anger directed at people who are ethnically Chinese. I have some Chinese friends (my neighbors are even PRC citizens), and they have all expressed fears to me about being harassed because of this move to bash China. In the early days of the virus, business at Chinese restaurants dropped off a lot. Over a month ago, at a lunch with retired colleagues, one of my best friends said that he was worried he might not be allowed into the restaurant. I thought he was joking at first, but his fear was real.
We do not normally name these epidemics by their country of origin anymore. The so-called "Spanish flu" did not start in Spain. It was just first detected there. It was actually spread to Europe from the US during WWI, especially by US soldiers. The 2009 "swine flu" epidemic was first detected in Mexico, but we did not call it the "Mexican flu". If we had, then we could expect Mexicans to be blamed and harassed for it, even though they are no more guilty of anything than other ethnic groups.
It was not a good idea to adopt the label "corona virus" for this disease, because there are other corona viruses. The name COVID-19 was adopted in order to give people a fairly neutral label that would get people to focus on the novel disease itself, not the people who come from the country where it was first detected.
Basically, the answer is that the label invites people to blame the Chinese people for a global epidemic that could have started in any country. We can certainly criticize the Chinese government for its initial attempts to suppress information about the outbreak, but the government is not the people. What has been happening around the world, and especially in the US, is a lot of anger directed at people who are ethnically Chinese. I have some Chinese friends (my neighbors are even PRC citizens), and they have all expressed fears to me about being harassed because of this move to bash China. In the early days of the virus, business at Chinese restaurants dropped off a lot. Over a month ago, at a lunch with retired colleagues, one of my best friends said that he was worried he might not be allowed into the restaurant. I thought he was joking at first, but his fear was real.
We do not normally name these epidemics by their country of origin anymore. The so-called "Spanish flu" did not start in Spain. It was just first detected there. It was actually spread to Europe from the US during WWI, especially by US soldiers. The 2009 "swine flu" epidemic was first detected in Mexico, but we did not call it the "Mexican flu". If we had, then we could expect Mexicans to be blamed and harassed for it, even though they are no more guilty of anything than other ethnic groups.
It was not a good idea to adopt the label "corona virus" for this disease, because there are other corona viruses. The name COVID-19 was adopted in order to give people a fairly neutral label that would get people to focus on the novel disease itself, not the people who come from the country where it was first detected.
