HBO’s Bill Maher excoriated liberals who complained about labeling the novel coronavirus as the “Chinese virus,” arguing that denoting the origin of a disease is not racist.
Maher, the host of Real Time, questioned why there was backlash against the phrase, one which President Trump repeatedly used but has since stopped, while pointing out that many diseases are named with a reference to its outbreak location during his show Friday night.
He noted that the Zika virus, Ebola, hantavirus, West Nile virus, Guinea worm, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, the Spanish flu, and MERS all had ties to their origin in their names and remarked, “So, why should China get a pass?”
Maher also read a tweet from Democrat California Rep. Ted Lieu, who said in part, “The virus is not constrained by country or race. Be just as stupid to call it the Milan Virus,” and he added, “No, that would be way stupider, because it didn’t come from Milan. And if it did, I guarantee we’d be calling it the Milan virus. Jesus f—ing Christ, can’t we even have a pandemic without getting offended?”
“It’s not racist to point out it’s batshit crazy to eat bats,” he argued, alluding to the suspicion that the virus originated in wet markets, which have reportedly reopened after being temporarily shut down to curb the spread of the virus.
“So, when someone says, ‘What if people hear “Chinese virus” and blame China?’ The answer is: ‘We should blame China.’ Not Chinese Americans. But we can’t stop telling the truth because racists get the wrong idea. There are always going to be idiots out there who want to indulge their prejudices. But this is an emergency — don’t we have bigger tainted fish to fry?”
Trump, members of his administration, and his allies have faced accusations of xenophobia after repeatedly calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan coronavirus.” The president repeatedly faced questions from the White House press about the insinuations associated with the label.
