During this time of crisis, it is fortunate that Democrats and the media have remained focused on the most crucial issues. That is why, even now, as the number of infected rises and mass closures and shut downs threaten to send the economy into a tailspin, they are still enormously concerned with the words we use to describe the virus that precipitated all of this.
These valiant defenders of truth and virtue insist that we mustn’t call it the China Virus or the Chinese Virus or any variant, because this is not China’s fault. It’s very important, they say, that we absolve the totalitarian communist Chinese government of any and all blame in the small matter of the global pandemic that began in their country, under their watch.
At a press conference yesterday, a reporter asked President Trump about his use of the “Chinese Virus” label, and claimed that the term is linked to “incidents of bias” against the Chinese. Trump gave an appropriately stern and dismissive response, but let’s really stop to think about this for a moment. There is a pandemic. Over 20% of Americans have had their hours cut or lost their jobs. We may be facing another Great Depression. This reporter has a chance to ask the President of the United States a question in the midst of all of this, and that’s what she wants to talk about?
She’s certainly not alone. Richard Engel of NBC launched into a lecture on air about the terrible racism of people following the common practice of naming a virus after its place of origin. Engel explained, “This is a virus that came from the territory of China but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus. It doesn’t speak Chinese. It doesn’t target Chinese people.”
Oh, it doesn’t speak Chinese? That’s news to me. Next you’ll tell me French bread doesn’t speak French. I guess that explains why my loaves never respond to me when I try to talk to them. I always thought it’s because my accent is too thick.
Democrats in Congress have made a significant issue out of this, too. And many breathless screeds have been written in many news publications defending China and its government against the “racism” of pointing out the simple fact that the virus came from China. The Intercept echoes the common claim that there has been “hatred” and “bias” against Chinese people. The only evidence they provide are two tweets by two different Chinese American women in media who both claim that they heard racist comments (we’ll leave aside the technicality that Chinese isn’t a race so it’s not actually possible to be racist against the Chinese).
Assuming these reports are true — which, to assume that, we’d have to beat ourselves over the head with a hammer until we forget all of the countless examples of entirely invented stories of politically convenient racism and discrimination in recent history — this would still be only two rude remarks said to a couple of women who, it seems, managed to survive the ordeal. Why are their hurt feelings a priority when many people are suffering in far worse ways at the moment?
And this is all much more sinister than simple stupidity and virtue signaling. The mainstream media and the Democratic Party are actively running cover for a communist regime that is in the middle of their own Chernobyl moment, but worse. This is a scandal on a scale rarely seen. The Chinese government — even according to CNN’s own reporting three weeks ago — interfered with early efforts to fight the disease by censoring doctors and health care specialists who tried to speak out. They spread disinformation, claiming, for instance, that the virus can’t be spread from human to human. Most incredibly of all, they ordered laboratories to destroy evidence of the virus when it was discovered back in December of last year.
And these are just the details we know about. If we had a real media, they’d be crawling over each other in an effort to investigate this scandal and see how deep it goes. This is, after all, one of the most extraordinary and consequential stories of our time. But our vanguards of truth, and their Democratic allies, are more interested in telling us about alleged “incidents of bias” against Asian media members in the United States.
One other point should be made here. Richard Engel is correct that the virus started in a bat. But how did it make it from the bat into a person? If there was a bat flying around my yard chock full of coronavirus, I wouldn’t have to worry much about the disease getting into my body. But that’s because I don’t eat bats, or anteaters, or donkeys, or dogs, or any of the animals that researchers think could have been the source of the outbreak. The media is worried about “stigmas” that might arise. Well perhaps there ought to be a stigma on eating the kinds of animals that are likely carriers of dangerous diseases. As much as it may hurt the feelings of some Chinese people to hear it, the fact is that Chinese dietary practices are also to blame. They should probably change those practices before we have to deal with yet another pandemic that starts on some Chinese person’s dinner plate.
You can bet that if a pandemic arose from gross and unhygienic behavior among white people in Alabama, the media would be happy to lecture them for their carelessness and to call the disease “the Alabama Flu” or “Redneckitis.” However you look at it, this is indeed a Chinese virus that has its origins in Chinese dietary habits and the corruption and incompetence of the Chinese government. And that’s an important point, no matter what the media says.