Thread by @sunny_hundal

I don't understand this knee-jerk reaction against criticising the Chinese regime for COVID-19.

Fuck that.

- Scientists have said for years its trade and slaughter of wild animals made outbreaks more likely.

- It covered up virus outbreak and locked up whistle-blowers

- It fudged the figures on the outbreak

- It has banned foreign journalists from reporting from inside.

- It put out propaganda videos claiming the last Coronavirus hospital has been shut down (yeah right!)

Some people just like authoritarianism, I guess?

Or they want to illustrate the West isn't that great?

But the blame for this lies ON CHINA.

Obviously (!) I deplore the racism against people of Chinese heritage - this argument over whether we blame this on China is ridiculous. There are BIGGER issues!

MERS stood for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, btw.

This whole argument that, "You can't call it the China Virus because that causes racism" - is just idiocy, IMO.

Just say you like authoritarianism and get it over with.

To be clear, I'm not calling it the 'China Virus'.

But I don't care if Trump and others are. Perhaps they *do* want to distract from their own failures. Then don't play into that by arguing about the term too!

Our focus should be on our govt competence and response....for now.