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Coronavirus: The Chinese Virus?

By Monika Khadka


President Donald J. Trump referred to the novel coronavirus as the Chinese Virus:

“Because it comes from China. That’s why. It’s not racist at all. I want to be accurate.”

For many Americans, it did not seem like an important issue. A pandemic had taken the world by storm and the name he used seemed like the smallest of our problems. But the rest of the world was alarmed. So why exactly is it such a big deal?


To begin, according to the World Health Organization, referring to the coronavirus as the Chinese virus is highly inappropriate. In May of 2015, WHO had released a statement that announced the best way of naming new diseases. It states, “Terms that should be avoided in disease names include geographic locations…” It also states, “Once disease names are established in common usage through the Internet and social media, they are difficult to change, even if an inappropriate name is being used.” It stands to reason that the President of the country ought to be more knowledgeable for the appropriateness of a term.


WHO had also stated,

“This may seem like a trivial issue to some, but disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected. We’ve seen certain disease names provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities...”

There are at least 18.2 million Asian Americans in the USA. And since the coronavirus outbreak, there has been an increase in violence against Asian Americans. In NYC, for example, a man had attacked an asian woman wearing a face mask, calling her degrading terms like “disease b----.” On March 14, three Asian family members were stabbed, including a 2-year and a 6-year old child. The assailant said he believed that they were Chinese and infecting people. The FBI analyzed that violence against the Asian community is just bound to increase.


COVID-19 is serious and proving fatal. But now is not the time for the “blame game”; it’s not time for us vs. them. The world is suffering together, and referring to the coronavirus as the Chinese virus does not remind us of the origin. Instead, it allows a platform for racists to be radical and violent.






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