> the use of racist terms like “China virus” has also grown
I will convert to Scientology before I accept that it's "racist" to refer to a disease by its place of geographical origin.
I will convert to Scientology before I accept that it's "racist" to refer to a disease by its place of geographical origin.
It’s easy to say this until you’ve had someone yell this at you on the street in order to harass you.
Just call it something else. It’s not that hard. There are lots of diseases from lots of other places that we somehow manage to refer to without tying it to the place from which it originated, or from which people think it originated.
Though yes, it's a stupid name (Wuhan Virus would be "ok-ish" in my opinion though - if we didn't know which virus it was)
Hong Kong Flu
West Nile Virus
German Measles
Guinea Worm
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Lyme Disease (named after Lyme, Connecticut)
Ross River Fever
Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever (named after Omsk, Russia)
Ebola (named after the Ebola River)
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
Zika (named after the Zika Forest, Uganda)
Japanese Encephalitis
Marburg Virus Disease (named after Marburg, Germany)
Or they're not named in recent times, but instead in times when using slurs was a leisure activity.
Plus the egregious case of the "Spanish" flu that might have originated in the US but Spain was unlucky to be talking openly about it.