Although far-left outlets like CNN have been describing the coronavirus as “Wuhan” for weeks, that description is now being described as racist by members of the left-wing media.
Nevermind that the Asian media have used the term “Wuhan virus,” an NBC News reporter still tweeted Monday, “FYI: Calling #COVID19 the ‘Wuhan Virus’ is racist.”
FYI: Calling #COVID19 the "Wuhan Virus" is racist.
— David Gura (@davidgura) March 9, 2020
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes attacked Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) as “astoundingly gross” for using the term.
Just astoundingly gross to call it the Wuhan Virus. https://t.co/cMrsA59xTH
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 9, 2020
To which Gosar replied, “Just astoundingly ignorant to have all major media refer to it as #WuhanVirus for months but somehow, today, you’ve decided that’s #racist.”
The Nation’s Davi Zirin chimed in with, “‘The Wuhan Virus.’ Racist to the last.”
“The Wuhan Virus.” Racist to the last.
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) March 9, 2020
The far-left Media Matters is accusing Fox News and Vice President Mike Pence of “try[ing] to rebrand coronavirus as ‘the Wuhan virus.’”
Naturally, many of our oh-so elite elites in the Blue Checkmark Mafia agree…
Using racist terms like "Wuhan virus" is why your family ran ads against you. Stop it. https://t.co/Ik8vAClZOW
— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) March 9, 2020
If you’re calling #CoronaVirus “Wuhan Virus” you’re a damn racist.
— Blair Amadeus Imani (@BlairImani) March 9, 2020
Desperate Trump supporters are trying to label COVID-19 the Wuhan virus to distract from the fact that the Trump administration's failures have increased the danger here in the U.S. It's childish, but it has the advantage of also invoking racist tropes. They like that. https://t.co/FdxttJqnBt
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) March 9, 2020
Most people call it the coronavirus.
Some call it Covid-19.
But only the most ignorant and racist among us would call it the Wuhan virus.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 9, 2020
This is irresponsible as well as designed to prompt prejudice. I'd tell you to do better, but I don't think you can.
— Jess Phoenix 🌋 (@jessphoenix2018) March 9, 2020
The stupidity, the ignorance behind this is simply astounding, but unfortunately, not at all surprising anymore.
Naming a virus after the location from where it likely originated, using that as a shorthand, goes back decades.
“Wuhan” was first discovered in Wuhan, China.
Ebola was named after a river close to where an outbreak took place in Africa.
Lyme disease was named after a Connecticut town experienced an outbreak in 1975.
The Zika virus was named after a forest in Uganda in 1947, where scientists discovered what it was.
The Marburg virus was first discovered in Marburg, Germany.
The West Nile virus is what causes West Nile fever… guess where…
Did you know Legionnaires’ disease is named that because the first notable outbreak killed off a bunch of legionnaires in attendance at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia back in 1976?
So we literally have decades of precedent in naming diseases after where they were first discovered, including a town in lily-white Connecticut. Good heaven, we have a disease named after a bunch of white, middle-aged legionnaires — but “Wuhan” is now racist.
Need I add that “Wuhan” is not even a race?
And that anti-science thinking is why Trump won the presidency.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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