Use the racist name or no deal
Any hope of G7 foreign ministers releasing a joint statement on the fight against COVID-19 was killed today after the U.S. insisted the document refer to it as the “Wuhan virus.”
As originally reported by Der Spiegel, and according to sources with knowledge of the situation, when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted the novel coronavirus be referred to by the name of the Chinese city where the outbreak first appeared, ministers from other countries refused to agree.
They were doing a video conference, having scrapped an in-person one planned for Pittsburgh because of the pandemic. One of the ministers suggested a joint statement on said pandemic.
Sources say that’s when Pompeo said the U.S. wanted to refer to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus.”
That was a red line for several ministers, and no joint statement was agreed upon or released.
One official from a country involved said Pompeo would not agree to a communique that didn’t refer specifically to the “Wuhan virus.”
…
Asked why including the term was so important in the global context of the pandemic, Pompeo blamed China for not spreading the word globally fast enough about just how dangerous the virus is.
This from a man who works for Donald Trump. This from a man who works for the “president” who has been lying about the virus from the beginning and continues to do so.
The Trump administration’s insistence on naming it the “Chinese virus,” or the “Wuhan” virus, contravenes international guidelines. The World Health Organization says viruses shouldn’t be named after cities and countries.
That advice is meant to avoid international finger-pointing in a crisis, and avoid repeats of taxonomic debates as occurred a century ago with the so-called Spanish flu…
But Trump and his pigs of course embrace international and racist finger-pointing.
H/t YNnB
The G8 became the G7 when Russia proved too cantankerous and unable to play nicely with its neighbours and other world powers. Perhaps the G7 is one G too many still.
Too bad the world is so damned sensitive! It is what it is!
Even if it’s true that the Chinese government deserves criticism or blame, what does that have to do with this?
Their vindictiveness trumps everything.
If you’re not insulting or spiting someone, what’s the point of anything?
If only China would have been more transparent, then Trump could have ignored the risks of this coming to the US for even longer.
They should really be calling it the Wuhan Wet Market Virus. I could really care less about who is offended if the purveyors, operators, and solicitors of wet markets are eliminated. The sooner the better.
I thought Trump opposed new taxonomies.
I don’t want to say that Trump is old-fashioned about things, but I would not be surprised if he still takes mercury for his dose of the “French Pox”.