The View host Whoopi Goldberg said people should not call the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” because people might start targeting Asian Americans.
“People, as we’ve seen, people start punching people — Asian folks out. They will attack,” Goldberg said Wednesday. “So, we need to stop calling it or labeling it like it’s they did it to us. Mother Nature really did this to us.”
Guest host Sara Haines also chimed in and said she believed using the term “Chinese virus” was “politicizing it by title.”
President Trump and other Republicans have been using the terms “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus” in an attempt to make sure the Chinese government takes responsibility for the outbreak.
I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the “borders” from China – against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020
Critics of the president have claimed the terms are racist. “The president is turning to racist rhetoric to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on, make tests widely available, and adequately prepare the country for a period of crisis,” Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, said Wednesday. “Don’t fall for it. Don’t let your friends and family fall for it.”
The president is turning to racist rhetoric to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on, make tests widely available, and adequately prepare the country for a period of crisis.
Don’t fall for it. Don’t let your friends and family fall for it.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 18, 2020
