This story in the New York Post is corroborated by African sources too. africanews.com/2020/04/11/cor… It inspires me to answer the challenge raised by @billmaher on Friday night: why *not* refer to coronavirus as "Wuhan virus" or (as Fox News still often prefers) "Chinese virus"?
The question is best answered with another question:
"Why do so many people seem so badly to WANT to apply this name?"
To ask that question is to see the answer: by using the phrase "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese virus" they gain identifiable human beings to blame. 2/x
"Why do so many people seem so badly to WANT to apply this name?"
To ask that question is to see the answer: by using the phrase "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese virus" they gain identifiable human beings to blame. 2/x
When Chinese bars harass Nigerian customers as COVID-carriers, we instantly recognize the problem:
Nigerian individuals didn't do anything wrong. They are not even a higher-risk population group! An in-group is angry, so it penalizes an out-group. Stupid, as well as wrong. 3/x
Nigerian individuals didn't do anything wrong. They are not even a higher-risk population group! An in-group is angry, so it penalizes an out-group. Stupid, as well as wrong. 3/x
Fox News and the Trump administration (until President Trump himself changed his tune after a chiding from President Xi) want to incite Americans against Chinese as the Chinese bartenders have been incited against Africans. 4/x
In both cases, the purpose is to deflect public anger from the truly responsible persons - the authorities first in China, then the US who covered up COVID for their own crass reasons - onto much bigger groups, marked out by racial or ethnic difference. 5/x
When scientists isolated Zika virus in the forests of Uganda back in the 1940s, they used the forest name for ease of speech. They weren't trying to rev up anger against hardwoods.
More important: they didn't need the cooperation of those hardwoods to contain the virus. 6/x
More important: they didn't need the cooperation of those hardwoods to contain the virus. 6/x
The Chinese authorities told lies and punished truth-tellers at the first outbreak of the virus. China's authoritarianism creates global health risks that demand creative response. I wrote about that imperative here. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… 7/x
But the lies that did most harm to Americans were not told in Chinese. They were told in English, by President Trump, his administration, and the cable network that spreads their message to its victimized viewers. 8/x
A month ago, I tried to satirize our way out of this dead end. My intended audience didn't get it. They reacted with outrage: why are you blaming *our* people for a disease- and then they resumed blaming *other* people for a disease. 9/x 
The only workable answer to the risk of global pandemic is intensified international cooperation, including with China.
That doesn't mean being nicey-nice. We may have to constrain China. But to constrain a power as strong as China, even the US needs allies and partners. 10/x
That doesn't mean being nicey-nice. We may have to constrain China. But to constrain a power as strong as China, even the US needs allies and partners. 10/x
Government-by-insult-dog is no way to build partnerships, especially when it's obvious to everybody except the insult-dog's fan base that the whole purpose of the insults is to cover up for the insult dog's own lethal failures. 11/x
Meanwhile, the insult-dog's media amplifiers are only too delighted to encourage confusion between the Chinese state and Americans of Chinese ancestry. The villain of Trump's latest ad? A former governor of Washington State. 12/x
Worse - much worse - the habit of attributing diseases to "them" exposes "us" to deadly risks. EG:
US intell became aware of COVID perhaps as early as November, certainly by mid-December. COVID reached the POTUS Daily Brief on Jan. 3, 2020. Trump ignored it. It was "them." 13/x
US intell became aware of COVID perhaps as early as November, certainly by mid-December. COVID reached the POTUS Daily Brief on Jan. 3, 2020. Trump ignored it. It was "them." 13/x
As the threat gathered through January, Trump continued to ignore it. Still "them." By the end of January, the disease was unignorable. So what did the us/them president do? He restricted travel between the US and China. Order issued Jan. 31, went into effect Feb. 2. 14/x
By that time, of course, the disease was already present inside US. (The first US case was confirmed Jan. 20.) By Feb 2, there were 8 cases, spread from Washington State to Massachusetts. 15/x
More to the point: many (most?) of the travelers between US and China are Americans. They can't be barred! They have to be tested and if need be quarantined.
But Trump thought of travel restrictions as an *alternative* to testing - the virus was carried by "them" not "us." 16/x
But Trump thought of travel restrictions as an *alternative* to testing - the virus was carried by "them" not "us." 16/x
Once the disease bit, wise response demanded maximum international cooperation, on issues from equipment to research. Trump's chauvinism has again & again thwarted cooperation. Against a contagion, the relevant "us" is humanity: Chinese, Nigerians, Americans-we all get sick. END
