Calling it Chinese Virus is not racist either. Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, German Measles, Japanese Virus, Japanese Encephalitis, Russian Flu are all named after countries. Also "China" is not a race, it's a country.

(comment is reply to burfog too)

I would agree if the original name was China/Chinese Virus. The problem is that, that particular naming is targeted at china because they were being twats by making rumors/propaganda blaming America.

So I feel that the people using that name are using it as a middle finger, which I don't agree with. That doesn't make the words itself racist, but the usage of it racist.

I hope that makes sense?!?

Wuhan is just the place of origin and no one battered an eyelid to it when it was first named Wuhan Virus or Wu Flu. I've never seen it used negatively.

The usage of it still isn't really racist, because China is not a race, but rather a country made up of people of many races. I agree that "China/Chinese Virus" is often being used with bad intentions.

Calling it Chinese Virus is not racist either. China is not a race.

I never head anybody calling it "Chinese Virus" until right after Chinese officials were found to be spreading rumors that the virus came from a US military operation. When those rumors started, the Chinese ambassador to the US was called in to get a scolding and the president immediately started using "Chinese Virus" very purposely.

In other words, it's simply the mildest justified revenge, without even a claim that anything was intentional.

That may have been true before the scientists agreed on a proper name. Now it has one, so calling it Wuhan virus or Chinese virus is inappropriate. The virus now mostly resides in the US and has already mutated so there is a European variant and US variant.

Also, I'm now in Asia and everybody around me calls it COVID or Corona.

Not only is China not a race, ironically you're defending the one place where there currently is guaranteed racism.

> most of Asia continues to call it Wuhan Virus

Do you have a source for this?

I'm not about to go searching, I'm watching WION on youtube at the moment which is a (new, 2015) news outlet in India which often refers to it as Wuhan Virus, but if I posted anything that wasn't CNN or NYT or such I'll prob just get downvoted with comments saying "oh thats fake news" or "thats not a creditable because we don't have it here in America".

To be clear when I say "most of asia" I don't mean, every country, and every news outlet. But that it's not uncommon.

I've seen news in Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, all refer to it as Wuhan Virus.

Singapore (where I live) I don't recall seeing it referred to as Wuhan Virus since maybe mid-march.

In any case if someone refers to it as Chinese/China Virus, I completely agree that it's racist. But Wuhan is the origin, and the original name given. Renaming has probably only hurt china more as people are very angry with the WHO and ccp.

It’s called "Wuhan pneumonia" (武漢肺炎) in Mandarin in Taiwan and in Cantonese in Hong-Kong. https://zh-yue.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/武漢肺炎大爆發

Only when compared to SARS-CoV-2

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Wuhan%20virus,SAR...

SARS-CoV-2 is pretty specific. Comparing with covid-19 seems more reasonable. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Wuhan%20virus,cov...

Do you have access to the world's most powerful search engine that can locate almost any source for you in an instant?

I don't know. If you mean Google, it's been lobotomized over the past decade.

We don't name viruses after geographic locations anymore to avoid stigmatization. I don't know why you all wants to hold on to such an unnecessary practice, especially when so many viruses and diseases were named based on an incorrect origin.

rational stigmatization isn't a bad thing.

There is no such thing as "rational stigmatization". That would be an oxymoron.

Dictionary defines "stigma" as:

> "a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person."

and gives the following example

> "the stigma of having gone to prison will always be with me"

This is an example of rational stigma. For example if you know someone who went to prison for robbery, they would have a rational stigma associated with them when they try to apply for a job at a bank. Not an oxymoron.

Denying jobs to recovered convicts is a very contested topic. That stigma turns into an irrational and easily disproved belief that a convict can never really recover and start leading a normal life. Such stigma then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Stigmatization is the act of creating stigmas. Maintaining them. And that is very clearly not rational. To be rational, you'd re-evaluate the person from the ground up before each event. Sure, being in prison would still be a factor, one of many. But stigma assumes that this factor alone defines the whole outcome, which is irrational.

I feel like you are talking about it from a political correctness point of view. A bank denying a job to a convicted robber is 100% justified and saying that's somehow not rational is just silly.

I'm talking from pure logic point. Denying a job to a convict (as a rule) is based on the assumption that it's absolutely impossible for a convict to recover and start leading a normal life. It is based on a 0% probability of that happening. And that's quite clearly not the case.