President Trump won't budge on labeling the COVID-19 coronavirus the "Chinese virus," apparently even to the point of altering his own
White House notes.After Trump's White House briefing on Thursday, during which he called the novel coronavirus "the Chinese virus" within 45 seconds of taking the podium, The
Washington Post's Jabin Botsford shared a photo showing that the notes Trump was reading from in one section included "corona virus" crossed out to be replaced with "Chinese virus," presumably by Trump himself.> Close up of President @realDonaldTrump notes is seen where he crossed out "Corona" and replaced it with "Chinese" Virus as he speaks with his coronavirus task force today at the White House. trump trumpnotes pic.twitter.com/kVw9yrPPeJ> > — Jabin Botsford (@jabinbotsford) March 19, 2020Trump has repeatedly doubled down on labeling of the coronavirus the "Chinese virus" because it originated in Wuhan, even as the World Health Organization has urged against attaching "locations or ethnicity to the disease," saying that "this is not a 'Wuhan Virus,' 'Chinese Virus' or 'Asian Virus'" and "the official name for the disease was deliberately chosen to avoid stigmatization."
New York Magazine's Josh Barro argued Thursday the photo of Trump's notes showed that "they're using the term 'the coronavirus' internally like everyone else and are throwing this up publicly because they would rather have an argument about political correctness than discuss the response itself." More stories from theweek.com America has one of the world's worst coronavirus responses Top coronavirus doctor puts head in hands when Trump mentions 'Deep State Department' at briefing BFFs Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern illustrate safe social distancing