Why "Chinese Virus" is racist

[Loren Pechtel]

Yes, bad things do happen in China. There is racism. The government lies and covers things up. They allowed the virus to spread until they could no longer ignore it. All of those things are also true of the US. We also know that the virus started in China. None of that means that you are justified in calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus". To do so only has one purpose--to vilify people who are Chinese. It leads to the same kind of behavior in the US that we now see against Africans in China.

I disagree on them letting it spread. They cracked down hard once they understood what they were dealing with.

It's fair to say that they did crack down hard for a while after local officials tried to cover up the outbreak, but lately they seem to have gone back to the practice of trying to minimize the magnitude of the problem by manipulating their statistics and spreading misinformation--e.g. trying to shift the blame onto the US government. For example, they don't count reinfections, once people are declared to have recovered. It isn't realistic to think that all of their cases are now being caused by people entering China from foreign countries. I think that much of this is a reaction to Trump's demonization of China, but the Chinese government is run by people who think that it is more important to control the narrative than to let the chips fall where they may. I suspect that their recent behavior is more of a reaction to Donald Trump's behavior towards them, but they have been extremely embarrassed by the fact that this crisis started in China. Trump has used China as a scapegoat for his own incompetent response to the crisis, so, IMO, China is trying to punch back. Russia is also scapegoating the US in an effort to deflect blame for their own unpreparedness to deal with this epidemic. Worse than the COVID epidemic is the epidemic of finger-pointing by governments and leaders in their efforts to avoid blame.

I do agree the local officials did try to cover it up--but that's part of not yet knowing what they were facing. I don't see them spreading deliberate misinformation--the death toll is certainly higher than they are saying but they don't know the true numbers, either--plenty of people died without ever being diagnosed. Fog of war, not misinformation.

As for reinfections--why would they count as new cases?? Especially since they probably are just a false negative on people who are no longer symptomatic but don't have 100% clearance. (And note that you can get a positive off viral material that isn't actually infectious--it's not looking at the whole genome.)

I think they have had a local outbreak that they stomped on again, but why do you think it's not people entering the country? Everyone gets quarantined and tested.

I do agree China is trying to punch back on a PR level, but I don't see that meaning they are lying about the numbers.

 

[Copernicus]

...

As for reinfections--why would they count as new cases?? Especially since they probably are just a false negative on people who are no longer symptomatic but don't have 100% clearance. (And note that you can get a positive off viral material that isn't actually infectious--it's not looking at the whole genome.)

I think they have had a local outbreak that they stomped on again, but why do you think it's not people entering the country? Everyone gets quarantined and tested.

I do agree China is trying to punch back on a PR level, but I don't see that meaning they are lying about the numbers.

The reason I suspect that they are manipulating the numbers is that they are just like all of the other governments, including ours. They want to appear that they are in control of the situation and making progress, so the numbers sometimes sound too good to be true--e.g. no new cases, but--wait--there are all of those "new" infections coming from other countries. Like Trump, they don't want to increase the numbers if it isn't really "their fault" (which was Trump's rationale for not wanting to disembark cruise ship passengers). Does anyone seriously believe that they aren't having a problem in their gulags and prisons? As for reinfections, they reduce the numbers when people who were sick test negative, but they don't increase the numbers when the same people test positive again. It is in their interest to subtract people from the count of those infected but not to add them back when it turns out they are back with the infection. That makes sense only if they aren't sincere about reporting the seriousness of the epidemic.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

...

As for reinfections--why would they count as new cases?? Especially since they probably are just a false negative on people who are no longer symptomatic but don't have 100% clearance. (And note that you can get a positive off viral material that isn't actually infectious--it's not looking at the whole genome.)

I think they have had a local outbreak that they stomped on again, but why do you think it's not people entering the country? Everyone gets quarantined and tested.

I do agree China is trying to punch back on a PR level, but I don't see that meaning they are lying about the numbers.

The reason I suspect that they are manipulating the numbers is that they are just like all of the other governments, including ours. They want to appear that they are in control of the situation and making progress, so the numbers sometimes sound too good to be true--e.g. no new cases, but--wait--there are all of those "new" infections coming from other countries. Like Trump, they don't want to increase the numbers if it isn't really "their fault" (which was Trump's rationale for not wanting to disembark cruise ship passengers). Does anyone seriously believe that they aren't having a problem in their gulags and prisons? As for reinfections, they reduce the numbers when people who were sick test negative, but they don't increase the numbers when the same people test positive again. It is in their interest to subtract people from the count of those infected but not to add them back when it turns out they are back with the infection. That makes sense only if they aren't sincere about reporting the seriousness of the epidemic.

They just admitted to having three new local cases in Beijing (note--this came from a Beijing-centric source so it doesn't cover the rest of the country as much), traced to an imported case. I simply don't see the evidence they are hiding things. Rather, what we are seeing is what extensive lockdown, testing and contact tracking can accomplish.

 

[Trausti]

 

[ZiprHead]

'We Alerted The World' To Coronavirus On Jan. 5, WHO Says In Response To U.S.

"We regret the decision of the president of the United States to order a halt in funding to the World Health Organization," WHO Direct0r-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday in response to President Trump's plan to stop U.S. money from going to the agency.

The U.S. is the top contributor to the WHO, which is leading the fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic.

On Tuesday, Trump accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." He also said the organization is overly influenced by China and was too trusting of that country, particularly in the early phase of the outbreak.

Through the middle of January, the president said, the WHO "parroted and publicly endorsed the idea that there was not human-to-human transmission happening despite reports and clear evidence to the contrary."

"We alerted the world on January the 5th," Ryan said. "Systems around the world, including the U.S., began to activate their incident management systems on January the 6th. And through the next number of weeks, we've produced multiple updates to countries, including briefing multiple governments, multiple scientists around the world, on the developing situation — and that is what it was, a developing situation."

 

[Half-Life]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

 

[ZiprHead]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Strange, I never knew a Wuhan citizen was a differant race than the rest of China.

Learn some new bullshit every day.

 

[Half-Life]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Strange, I never knew a Wuhan citizen was a differant race than the rest of China.

Learn some new bullshit every day.

What?

Wuhan is a city in China. Therefore, they refer to it as the Wuhan virus.

It would be like if the virus originated in NYC and we called it the "NYC virus" and China called it "The American virus." Same meaning, don't you agree?

C'mon guys!!!

 

[ZiprHead]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Strange, I never knew a Wuhan citizen was a differant race than the rest of China.

Learn some new bullshit every day.

What?

Wuhan is a city in China. Therefore, they refer to it as the Wuhan virus.

It would be like if the virus originated in NYC and we called it the "NYC virus" and China called it "The American virus." Same meaning, don't you agree?

C'mon guys!!!

No, I don't agree. Because it's stupid.

 

[Half-Life]

What?

Wuhan is a city in China. Therefore, they refer to it as the Wuhan virus.

It would be like if the virus originated in NYC and we called it the "NYC virus" and China called it "The American virus." Same meaning, don't you agree?

C'mon guys!!!

No, I don't agree. Because it's stupid.

What are you not agreeing with?

That China calls it the Wuhan virus? Because they do.

What's with this coddling China nonsense? Government is scum.

 

[Copernicus]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Regardless, the WHO criteria for naming viruses were put in place years ago to prevent names from stigmatizing people from the location that is in the name of the virus. You know this, yet you keep trying to justify the use of the name.

So it is pretty obvious why Trump and his fan base have been touting that name here. Even though Trump himself stopped using the racist label, his fans are still trying to use it to deflect blame from Donald Trump's botched handling of the crisis. Apparently, Trump realized that it was bad optics for him to be seen promoting the label after it triggered a huge spike in the number of racist attacks on Asian Americans. So his loyal fandom is still soldiering on with the label in online forums like this one.

 

[ZiprHead]

What?

Wuhan is a city in China. Therefore, they refer to it as the Wuhan virus.

It would be like if the virus originated in NYC and we called it the "NYC virus" and China called it "The American virus." Same meaning, don't you agree?

C'mon guys!!!

No, I don't agree. Because it's stupid.

What are you not agreeing with?

That China calls it the Wuhan virus? Because they do.

What's with this coddling China nonsense? Government is scum.

Because calling it the Wuhan virus is not racist because Wuhan people are not a differant race. What's so difficult about that for you to get?

 

[Half-Life]

What are you not agreeing with?

That China calls it the Wuhan virus? Because they do.

What's with this coddling China nonsense? Government is scum.

Because calling it the Wuhan virus is not racist because Wuhan people are not a differant race. What's so difficult about that for you to get?

So if Trump started calling it the Wuhan virus, then you'd be OK with that, right?

 

[Half-Life]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Regardless, the WHO criteria for naming viruses were put in place years ago to prevent names from stigmatizing people from the location that is in the name of the virus. You know this, yet you keep trying to justify the use of the name.

So it is pretty obvious why Trump and his fan base have been touting that name here. Even though Trump himself stopped using the racist label, his fans are still trying to use it to deflect blame from Donald Trump's botched handling of the crisis. Apparently, Trump realized that it was bad optics for him to be seen promoting the label after it triggered a huge spike in the number of racist attacks on Asian Americans. So his loyal fandom is still soldiering on with the label in online forums like this one.

WHO is majority owned by CHINA. Of course they would lie. It's propaganda. They deserve to have funding withheld.

 

[ZiprHead]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Regardless, the WHO criteria for naming viruses were put in place years ago to prevent names from stigmatizing people from the location that is in the name of the virus. You know this, yet you keep trying to justify the use of the name.

So it is pretty obvious why Trump and his fan base have been touting that name here. Even though Trump himself stopped using the racist label, his fans are still trying to use it to deflect blame from Donald Trump's botched handling of the crisis. Apparently, Trump realized that it was bad optics for him to be seen promoting the label after it triggered a huge spike in the number of racist attacks on Asian Americans. So his loyal fandom is still soldiering on with the label in online forums like this one.

WHO is majority owned by CHINA. Of course they would lie. It's propaganda. They deserve to have funding withheld.

No, it's not. It's parent organization is the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Is that some other bit of idiocy Tucker Carson told you or is that just a rumor spread by you and your other mouth breathing conservative idiots?

 

[blastula]

Looks like Bill Maher actually agrees with Trump on something:

https://nypost.com/2020/04/11/bill-maher-defends-calling-coronavirus-chinese-virus/

Bill Maher said it was fine to call the coronavirus the “China virus,” adding that a global pandemic was no time for political correctness.

“‘What if people hear Chinese virus and blame China?’ The answer is we should blame China. We can’t afford the luxury anymore of non-judginess towards a country with habits that kill millions of people,” Maher thundered Friday in a monologue at the end of his HBO show “Real Time.”

The longtime liberal said there were bigger “tainted fish to fry,” saying if the sun exploded many of the online lefties would whine about the first person who called it a dwarf star.

Not a good idea to take advice about a virus from antivaxxers.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

They are. We have had relatives afraid for us making a trip into areas that weren't Han.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In China, the virus is referred to as the Wuhan virus. Can't be racist. It's the media fear mongering. Unless you say China is racist against themselves.

Regardless, the WHO criteria for naming viruses were put in place years ago to prevent names from stigmatizing people from the location that is in the name of the virus. You know this, yet you keep trying to justify the use of the name.

So it is pretty obvious why Trump and his fan base have been touting that name here. Even though Trump himself stopped using the racist label, his fans are still trying to use it to deflect blame from Donald Trump's botched handling of the crisis. Apparently, Trump realized that it was bad optics for him to be seen promoting the label after it triggered a huge spike in the number of racist attacks on Asian Americans. So his loyal fandom is still soldiering on with the label in online forums like this one.

WHO is majority owned by CHINA. Of course they would lie. It's propaganda. They deserve to have funding withheld.

Reality check: Until His Flatulence decided to defund them the US funded them about 10x what China did. If anyone owns WHO it's us, not China.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

That China calls it the Wuhan virus? Because they do.

[Citation needed]

My wife was just talking to her sister in Shanghai. I asked--they simply call it "virus". (Chinese has no equivalent of our a/an/the.) There is no need to qualify it with "Wuhan", they don't.

 

[repoman]

Plaques placed around Atlanta.

Pretty funny