March 19, 2020

"Both American and Chinese officials have raised questions about whether the virus was a manmade bioweapon, whilst Trump has dubbed it the 'China virus.'"

"'By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes,' said Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and corresponding author on the paper.... The team analysed the molecular structure of the virus.... They suggested that it cannot be an artificial creation because its structure 'differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.'"

From "Coronavirus is not a bioweapon created in a lab, scientists say" (The Herald).

Contemplate how much worse you would feel about all this if you found out that human beings had manufactured it as a weapon.

By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus," but I think Trump is using that term to hit back after Chinese officials made accusations against the United States. I'd like to see both stop, and I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places. Use scientific names, not place names or ethnicity names.

311 comments:

1 – 200 of 311   Newer›   Newest»
Ambrose said...

Trump did not "dub" the virus anything. He is using the term to poke at China and at his leftist, pc, critics who object to the usage, but the idea that he came up with that name is utter nonsense.

Automatic_Wing said...

There's a point to naming it the Chinese virus. It jumped to humans due to the specific conditions in Chinese wet markets - all sorts of exotic mammals packed in little cages and being butchered in unsanitary conditions right next to each other.

The Chinese government has the power to shut these places down. But they choose not to. Perhaps the shame of being responsible for inflicting this disease on the rest of the world will motivate them to bring these markets under control.

Retail Lawyer said...

I don't like the term, "China Virus" either. Most of these epidemic virus' come from China, so that is too generic. I like "Wuhan Virus". Its traditional naming, and teaches the children something of geography. Racists could call it "Chinaman virus" and self-identify.

Leland said...

I'm all for using scientific names. However, when this began, the disease was routinely referred to as the Wuhan Virus or Wuhan Coronavirus. Sure, it spread more internationally, and so is no longer referenced by the region and more by the entire country. Yet, before I heard China Virus, I heard Trump Virus. Now that is absurd, yet the media spent days trying to push that notion, after having spent months calling it the Wuhan Coronavirus.

I note once again, the call to put down arms is only after the Right takes on the weaponry once used against them and the Left realizes it was a mistake to go that far.

Louie the Looper said...

Bio weapon or not, the world now knows the levels of chaos and disruption a bio weapon could cause. That is the scary part.

rehajm said...

My word of the day is zoonosis.

David Begley said...

The Wuhan virus started in China due to their bizarre Third World eating habits.

I submit that the Chinese government was silent for weeks and refused US help because it wanted to unleash the Wuhan virus on the world and get Joe Biden get elected. This is biggest election interference operation of all time.

The death of 100,000 Chinese is a small price to pay to get rid of Trump and install China Joe in the White House. The payoff to Hunter was the clue.

Jeff Brokaw said...

Well it’s being *used* as a weapon so...

Laslo Spatula said...

"They suggested that it cannot be an artificial creation because its structure 'differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.'"

Maybe I'm off-base, but I don't think many people believe the Chinese manufactured an "artificial' creation, but rather perhaps nurtured a 'natural' virus, perhaps by providing opportunity for crossing from one species to another that might not have happened outside of a lab environment.

I don't expect a lot of sunlight on this, because China has a foot on a lot of necks; this seems apparent when you watch our media regurgitate Chinese propaganda.

I'll stop calling it the Wuhan virus when hippies stop referring to a certain concert as Woodstock, when it wasn't even in Woodstock.

I am Laslo.

alanc709 said...

Althouse now wants civility bullshit.

RMc said...

I'm so old, I remember when Stephen King's "The Stand" was fiction.

Pray it stays that way.

Nichevo said...

By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus,"


Tough titty said the kitty. You're old enough to remember when rubella was called German measles. Ebola. West Nile virus. Etc etc etc. But yes, PDT is doing it for good and sufficient reason.

AllenS said...

Hold on here, this virus did not start in the USofA, it started in China.

Milo Minderbinder said...

Facts are facts. It's a China virus. If the Chinese would stop referring to it as a US Army-caused virus, perhaps some reasonable dialogue would ensue.

Fact is that China's trying to preserve its global brand. Their outright deception about the virus source and its contagion is despicable.

Asian-Americans contribute more than their fair share to America's culture and economy. Pity the press who parrot the Chinese Communist Party's line on the virus, while conveniently looking the other way when the Ivy Leagues tilt their admissions playing field based on race. Now that really is racial bias.

Laslo Spatula said...

"I'd like to see both stop..."

The Cruel Neutrality of Wishing On a Star.

I am Laslo.

BlackjohnX said...

It deserves to be called a Chinese virus for two reasons. It originated there and the Chinese government failed to notify the rest of the world regarding its appearance and effects for months on end. Karma. Also, it further supports Trump's position that China is the biggest bad actor on the planet and needs to be called out repeatedly. It also, at some point, will focus all eyes on the complicity of our political class and globalist financiers on their sleazy if not criminal relationships with the Chinese regime.

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann Althouse said...

"Bio weapon or not, the world now knows the levels of chaos and disruption a bio weapon could cause. That is the scary part."

1. We're also seeing amazing organization and effort. Human beings are showing the best of what we can do when there's a big problem.

2. Anyone looking what is happening will see the huge problems with using disease as a weapon. Everyone all over the world gets hit. You massively disrupt your own country and kill your own people.

Amadeus 48 said...

Nah. It's the Wuhan virus. Live with it. Lyme, Connecticut, does. The Chinese government and their US media lackeys won't like that, either.

And, pity the poor pangolins.



rehajm said...

I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places.

They avoid the stigma of naming after communities but do use geographic locators like rivers (Ebola) forests (Zika) or regions (MERS)- Middle East.

...as with the current virus, SARS-CoV-2.


https://www.livescience.com/48234-how-ebola-got-its-name.html

Curious George said...

"By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus,"

It is a China virus. Most have been and will be moving forward, until the Chinese stop eating shit like bats and have open "wet" markets.

Ann Althouse said...

"They avoid the stigma of naming after communities but do use geographic locators like rivers (Ebola) forests (Zika) or regions (MERS)- Middle East."

How would you like it if the river or forest in your beloved country had the same name as a horrible disease? I say scientific names should be used, not geographic or ethnic.

Laughing Fox said...

There is value in labeling by the place where it originated. It helps us consider how it spread and hopefully plan to avoid more of it now and plan to avoid new diseases better as they come up.
On the other hand, "pangolin flu" or even "P-B virus" (for pangolin-bat) has a nice ring to it.

tim in vermont said...

"They suggested that it cannot be an artificial creation because its structure 'differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.’"

Unless, of course, the Chinese used CRISPR on a bat virus.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/switched-on-bats-hosting-viruses-is-a-cost-of-flying

These kinds of deficient arguments in defense of political correctness are one of the most disappointing aspects of modern “science."

Amadeus 48 said...

No one, and I mean no one, will look at this whole mess coldly and neutrally for years. It is non-stop spin, 24/7/365.

I am looking at one number on the Johns Hopkins map: the number of deaths in the USA.

Ann Althouse said...

"Live with it. Lyme, Connecticut, does."

If we had it to do over again, we should not hurt the people of that city like that. It doesn't matter that they could put up with it. There's no good reason to do it. It may be hard to change a name now, but names have been changed. If it's offensive enough, it will be changed retroactively (e.g., "mongoloid idiot"), but at least going forward, we should do better.

narciso said...

And tom friedman, covering for his chinese overlords, is amusing.

tim in vermont said...

I don’t like it that the Chinese are blaming it on the American military. They should withdraw the baseless accusation and this will all probably stop. Until then it’s the

C Chinese
O Originated
V Viral
I Infectious
D Disease

Michael said...

Althouse
Sorry you don’t like the virus that began in China to be called the ———-virus. What do you call the Spanish Flu? West Nile Virus?. Zika?. Ebola.? All named for places. The very Woke WHO has advised naming viruses after anything but countries because it might hurt feelings. Can you imagine having your feelings hurt over diseases spring from butchered bats in wet markets where there isn’t a cube of ice?

mockturtle said...

Wow, 'scientists say'! And an associate professor proclaims that the COVID-19 virus is a natural mutation! Impressive! But there are plenty of scholarly articles, from Chinese scientists who say it was possible that the original bat version was modified by humans and that there are structural indications that it was. No, the virus was not 'created' by humans but could very well have been modified by humans. In the lab. In Wuhan.

Michael K said...

The scientific name for the virus is Wuhan virus, PC panty twisting not withstanding.

bbear said...

Ann, is it okay with you if we call pot stickers, moo shu pork, and hot and sour soup 'Chinese food'? After all, they're found in other places too, like San Francisco and New York.

Johnathan Birks said...

Spain didn't inflict its version of the flu on the world and didn't lie about its existence for two months. Lyme, CT, didn't do that either. China needs to own the fact that it knew about this virus since Thanksgiving at the latest, punished doctors who tried to alert its citizenry. Now they blame it on America and the press are falling in line because Orange Man Bad.

Nauseating.

tim in vermont said...

The Cosmos piece was written in 2018, BTW.

Tom said...

China needs to be more worried we cancel a big chunk of our debt to pay for this mess they lied about and hid.

And, it would be wise for every scientist to claim this isn’t a bio weapon because if it were a bio weapon, that’s a trigger for WWIII.

rhhardin said...

'd like to see both stop, and I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places.

It's a competition. Men like it. It creates space. It's not violence though - it's a domestication of violence,.

Woman doesn't like words suddenly.

AllenS said...

How would you like to work at a university in a state that brought to the world Ed Gein? Imagine the hurt and sorrow and embarrassment that you would have to endure day after day.

Or, maybe not.

rehajm said...

How would you like it if the river or forest in your beloved country had the same name as a horrible disease?

They thought the convention was better than adopting the hurricane traditon...

rhhardin said...

You can't cancel US debt. Nobody would buy it afterwards. When an enemy turns up, it's at most impounded for the duration, but it's still their stuff.

Laslo Spatula said...

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Named after the mountain range spreading across western North America first recognized first in 1896 in Idaho.

Lyme Disease
Named after a large outbreak of the disease occurred in Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut in the 1970s.

Norovirus
Named after Norwalk, Ohio after an outbreak in 1968.

And don't get the Legionnaires going on about a certain lung infection.

I am Laslo.

mockturtle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

"I am looking at one number on the Johns Hopkins map: the number of deaths in the USA."

That is the numerator. My denominator is 330,000,000.

Browndog said...

China
Originated
Viral
Infection
Disease

-of 2019

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The leftwing commie corporate press (some of it owned by the chi-coms) want you to buy more BS.

mike said...

Ann,

You're starting to become the Judy Hensler of the blogger class. Stop the goody two shoes civility act.

David Begley said...

Ann

The Chinese government is no friend to the US. Don’t be an apologist for those murdering Commie dictators. They execute political prisoners and then harvest their organs for profit. Look it up. Free speech advocates and classic liberals like you are enemies of the Chinese government. If the two of us were Chinese, we’d have been jailed and executed years ago.

bbear said...

Michael K said: "The scientific name for the virus is Wuhan virus..."

Right about the panty twisting but actually the scientific name for the virus is SARS-CoV-2, and Covid-19 is the disease it causes.

Louie the Looper said...

If there is one lesson to be learned from this pandemic, it is this:

DON’T EAT BATS!

Gusty Winds said...

Trump is looking past the crisis and setting up changes that will be made when dealing with, and doing business with China. Yea Yea smile on your brother and love one another....but the Communist Chinese gov't should be smacked upside the head for this. And Donald Trump is just the man to do it.





Michael said...

I can assure you the people of Lyme give not one shit about Lyme disease being named after them.

Is Meadehouse thinking up new ways to be Woke during this incarceration? It is not helping. It is annoying.

Laslo Spatula said...

I have seen the light.

I will tell my out-of-work friends to be more responsible about what they call the virus that put them out of a job.

Because that seems to be the fucking priority now.

And yet people wonder why some don't seem to be taking it seriously enough.

I am Laslo.

MountainMan said...

I have no problem with it being called the "China Virus" or the "Wuhan Virus". The actions of the Chinese government and CCP are responsible for this damaging societies all over the globe. I sincerely hope when this is done that US companies pull their supply chains out of China and move them to other Asian countries, or better, to the US or USMCA area. Linking ourselves to China has been an economic and social disasterl. They are not good partners; they lie, cheat, and steal.

Browndog said...

We kinda have to stop naming forest fires after their point of origin, don't we?

Hurricanes after innocent people?

We need to smarten up, and name bad things after flowers so nobody gets their feelings hurt because we can only communicate efficiently is in an atmosphere of unhurt feelings.

brylun said...

These kinds of deficient arguments in defense of political correctness are one of the most disappointing aspects of modern “science."

Political correctness to the grave...

Merny11 said...

Slightly off topic - but - an Illinois Mayor is now going to ban liquor stores and gun sales? So having a vodka with dinner is going to spread the virus? What kind of over reach is that?
Mad don’t get me going on the guns .....

tim in vermont said...

It was random chance that the bat virus developed mutations in two key areas that were identical to the virus that causes AIDS. I guess the force was with it and it had to happen, right? You know what the force is? It’s stuff that has to happen to serve the pre-determined plot. In this case, 'the plot' is the narrative.

A far more likely explanation is that some scientist used CRISPR to insert a couple of segments of the AIDS virus into a bat virus.

High blood pressure is a bad precondition for the Wuhan virus, so you better not read this:

Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985

Google up what a “chimeric virus” is.

I didn’t read this somewhere, BTW, this was the first hit on a google search that included nature.com

Calypso Facto said...

""P-B virus" (for pangolin-bat) has a nice ring to it."

The Corona beer company (Cervecería Modelo) approves, getting the monkey off its back. Skippy peanut butter, not so much.

mccullough said...

This is a good time to decouple from China. Since universities are closed just don’t renew those 400,000 Chinese student visas next year.

Revamp higher education in the process.

How goes the NBA like China now? Costing them billions.

A boycott of Nike is also a good idea.

D.D. Driver said...

"I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places."

Oh, lighten up Francis!

--Lou Gehrig

AMDG said...

I think either “CCP Virus” or “Xi Virus” are acceptable.

Nichevo said...


"By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus,"


You know what you are? You're pious. Maybe a better word is sanctimonious. Stop scratching my face, says the rapist as he tears open your blouse. I say, for the harm they have caused us, we may call it what we like.

Breezy said...

Rhinovirus is the scientific name for a virus causing the common cold. Though “rhino” means “of the nose”, who thinks of that vs our wonderfully bulky rhinoceros?

tim in vermont said...

I don’t think this is a bioweapon, BTW. I think it’s an industrial accident.

brylun said...

Arguments for naming COVID-19 as the "Chinese" or "Wuhan" virus:

1. It actually originated there.
2. There was a well-documented coverup of the seriousness and spread of the virus by China.
3. Many other viruses have been named by the place they originated.
4. The Chinese "wet market" practices are shamed by using the geographic term.
5. The Chinese have blamed the American Army for the spread of the virus in Wuhan.

Arguments against:

"Feelings."

Althouse, am I missing anything? How does this stack up against "cruel neutrality?"

Ryan said...

Hi, I'm the ghost of Lou Gherig and I would like in on this discussion.



P.S., remember when Althouse had a ghost commentor? I'm trying to remember who it was. That was some good stuff.

Ryan said...

I mean "Gehrig."

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Amadeus 48 said...

Personally, I call it the CNN virus, since they appear to have taken ownership of it.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Stop bullying us!" scream the bullies.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Scientific names sometimes have location-specific components, like Australopithecus for example. The name that sticks in the public conscience might be something else — Piltdown Man, Lyme Disease, Bird Flu, Mad Cow — but is usually the name that best describes the origin or effect of the specific thing. I am very concerned that the Media appear to be trying to appease China, to spread their propaganda that saying Wuhan Flu is racist. That’s a ridiculous assertion that deserves strong pushback and mediaswine ought to be ashamed for helping China cover up the origin of this pandemic and should instead remind everyone how China acted in bad faith and allowed this virus to spread widely before acknowledging reality. There’s nothing wrong with factually naming the origin. In fact, public world wide shaming of the evil commies governing China is a positive good, which perhaps will provide some pressure to reform Chinese habits (wet markets) and public health procedures.

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

Eventually, one's true self is revealed, especially in a crisis.

Xmas said...

Saying the virus could be from pangolins does the Chinese no favors either. There should be no human contact or even contact between bats and pangolins. The only way a corona virus from pangolins could be involved is from black market pangolins smuggled in from Thailand and other SEA countries.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus,"

Why not call it the CHINA virus. China is a country a geographical place where the origination point is.

Like NILE fever, SPANISH flu, EBOLA, and a bunch of other illnesses that have been named by their origination or supposed origination.

Whether you like it or not THE VIRUS ORIGINATED IN CHINA.

BTW: the company that makes Corona beer isn't too happy with the Cornoa Virus name either.


Personally...I like calling it the Wu Tang Flu

exhelodrvr1 said...

Doesn't help that the WHO is extremely political, and has been kissing China's ass this whole time. And the MSM is often doing the same as a way to get at Trump.

Sebastian said...

"I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus,"

You are so nice.

"but I think Trump is using that term to hit back after Chinese officials made accusations against the United States."

Exactly. Fight back. Against the commies and their allies in the MSM.

"I'd like to see both stop, and I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places."

You are so nice.

"Use scientific names, not place names or ethnicity names."

Except place names are easy to remember and identify, and they have historical value. Nothing wrong with them. No one looks down on Lyme.

This is only an issue now because it has propaganda value for the Chinese and the MSM. Being nice about scientific names now means taking sides in the propaganda war--the wrong side.

Ryan said...

Trump likes nicknames. I know for a fact that is hurtful to Chinese, in the US and elsewhere, to disparage "China" as a whole. We have US citizens of Chinese origin. At least Trump should not needlessly disparage them. Call it the "Xi virus" or something else not identifying the whole country, if you insist on pointing a finger.

But I have Chinese friends and many of you probably don't. So you may not care.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Guarantee that the impact of COVID on the west has al Queda, etc. re-evaluating their plans

brylun said...

300,000 Chinese working in Italy. A coincidence?

Sebastian said...

By the way, I agree with commenters that the proper name for the virus should be the Wuhan virus, which I will use myself from now on.

Not only does it reflect common practice and historical accuracy, it now also serves as a proper act of #Resistance.

tim in vermont said...

"But I have Chinese friends and many of you probably don't. So you may not care.”

Just curious, are they outraged that the ChiComs are claiming it came out of Ft Detrick? Is this hurtful to them as Americans?

tim in vermont said...

It’s the "Opossumtown Trot” - Chicoms

(That one is a little bit inside.)

Bill R said...

Laslo is making a good point. It's probably correct that the virus was not manufactured. It may have been bred. The virus is very well adapted to humans, is very contagious and has a long incubation period. These are exactly the traits you want if you are trying to generate a global pandemic. I'm skeptical that these traits just spontaneously emerged in some pangolin with a cold.

I'm skeptical of the wet market theory as well. A lone pangolin and a lone bat are together in a cage. Each is infected with a separate strain of coronavirus. One coughs on the other and then, in the few days or hours they have before being sold and eaten, the strains mix their RNA and form a new virus adapted to humans and very virulent. Then the new strain multiplies itself and then ... I'm skeptical.

The denial that the virus RNA "mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins." is one of those denials that is way too specific. Sort of like saying that Mr. Smith and Mrs. Jones could not have been having an affair because no condoms were found in the motel room trash cans. There is more to come on this.


exhelodrvr1 said...

I don't especially like champagne, so I think calling it that is an insult to that entire region of France.

Big Mike said...

I note once again, the call to put down arms is only after the Right takes on the weaponry once used against them and the Left realizes it was a mistake to go that far.

This!

Sorry, Althouse, but I read “By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus," but I think Trump is using that term to hit back after Chinese officials made accusations against the United States. I'd like to see both stop ...” as “Trump should stop punching back.” In other words, civility bullshit.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Interesting how the writer implies that Trump is saying the virus was manufactured as a bioweapon by calling it the China virus. This deserves another "without evidence" label the media loves to apply.

China's lies and attempts to suppress information have cost lives and economic devastation across the globe. They deserve to be shamed. I could care less if someone has their feelings hurt.

bbear said...

If y'all are looking for technical details on the taxonomy of this virus, the medical journal THE LANCET has up an excellent discussion of the nomenclature at

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30557-2/fulltext

Amadeus 48 said...

You know, there really is a "wet market" in Wuhan where this took off.

This viral emanation from the ravenous appetites of the teeming millions is on a par with why we can't have rhinoceroses, why African elephant populations are at risk, and why the Siberian tiger populations have become so threatened. Even in a police state like China, it is hard to control the actions of a billion and a half people with some very strong "traditions".

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Our MSM is mostly hot garbage.

donald said...

I have a Chinese friend and I don’t give one fuck. Neither does he.

Browndog said...

brylun said...

300,000 Chinese working in Italy. A coincidence?


Specifically Wuhan Chinese.

D.D. Driver said...

I have no problem calling it the Chinese Virus or Wuhan Virus as long as its not used to place blame. It's no more offensive than referring to a San Francisco earthquake. If that's where the earthquake happened, why shouldn't we call it that? It's not the same thing as saying that San Franciscans are bad people who caused the earthquake. And its also true that these earthquakes affect other areas outside of San Francisco (just like the Wuhan Virus has now spread). Does make it offensive? Because it affected places that weren't San Francisco?

Wuhan Virus is just another natural disaster named after its epicenter.

Laslo Spatula said...

Our elites succeeded in ruining American manufacturing by chasing cheap labor in China.

Our elites succeeded in devastating the American blue-collar worker.

Our elites succeeded in tying our well-being to a totalitarian regime.

The virus came from China, but the magnitude of its effect on our country is on our politicians and CEO-class.

Since they were so enamored with China, they will understand why they now are needed to be marched to shallow graves and shot in the back of the head, and the cost of the bullet charged to their families.

Unless we harvest their organs first, of course.

I am Laslo.

D.D. Driver said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
brylun said...

Until we have the Wuhan virus research laboratory open to the world to see what actually happened there (including any "destruction" of records, etc.) I remain skeptical of any "explanation" proffered without that evidence.

It is well-documented that the ChiComms were (and perhaps still are) extracting organs from political prisoners. Why would you believe them now?

Iman said...

Pangolinguini Flu... how’s that?

brylun said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

As Trump said yesterday, he calls it the "China virus", because it came from China. He also noted attempts by the Chinese government to say that it came from the US. We saw this type of propaganda move over and over during the Cold War.

tim in vermont said...

I am sorry that Chinese Americans are feeling shame due to the actions of the CCP, so let’s all pretend it didn’t happen!

tim in vermont said...

"t is well-documented that the ChiComms were (and perhaps still are) extracting organs from political prisoners. Why would you believe them now?”

Quite shaming Chinese Americans!

German Americans and Japanese Americans were foursquare behind America in WWII. Dual loyalty? I can’t worry about your feelings.

Browndog said...

Aunty Trump said...

I don’t think this is a bioweapon, BTW. I think it’s an industrial accident.


Most people don't think it's a bioweapon. Because they don't want to believe it's a bioweapon, in my opinion.

Is it possible to believe it could be a bioweapon without being ostracized?

RMc said...

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Lyme Disease

Norovirus


Yes, but naming things after American towns isn't racist, you racist.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"The virus’ name game has become an absurd example of manipulative identity politics. The virus first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan. For two months, mainstream media called it Wuhan virus. Now China’s communist dictators, attempting to evade responsibility for initially denying the disease existed and, in doing so, spawning the global epidemic — contend the name “Wuhan virus” is racist. Absurd propaganda. Lyme disease? Remind Beijing it’s named for a town in Connecticut. I’ll stick with COVID-19/Wuhan, thank you."

The left's favorite deal is "You're RACIST!" The Chi-Coms are happy to oblige.


Ron Winkleheimer said...

How would you like it if the river or forest in your beloved country had the same name as a horrible disease?

I can honestly say that I would not care one whit.

Fernandinande said...

The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2
Kristian G. Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, W. Ian Lipkin, Edward C. Holmes & Robert F. Garry

Guess which name gets in the news?

rcocean said...

No, we're going to call it the Wuhan Virus or the Chinese Virus. The only way to stop this absurd PC sensitivity over language is to stop doing it. We've always called Flues by the place of origin and I see no reason to stop. Calling it Chinese isn't bigoted, unless you think the phrase "Lets eat Chinese tonight" is bad. And we all know that if it had originated in Italy, and we called it the "Italian Flu" nobody would give a rats ass.

Stop with the Boomer virtue signaling. Its not 1980 anymore.

brylun said...

BTW, it is likely that after Italy posts its number of deaths from yesterday, they will have reported more deaths from coronavirus than Communist China.

rcocean said...

Why don't we bring back laws banning profanity. Do you realize how many religious people feel bad when they read/hear someone swear? Oh, that's right, you don't care about them. Its only CERTAIN people we can't offend.

Fuck that. One rule for everybody.

Amadeus 48 said...

Other Chinese traditions apparently include the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Peoples Revolution, as well as the suppression of Tibet. I am so old that I remember when Hollywood stars gave speeches about Tibet and the Dalai Lama at the Oscars.

tim in vermont said...

"Laslo is making a good point. It's probably correct that the virus was not manufactured”

I just gave you a link to the premier scientific journal, Nature, which described the creation of new viruses from bat viruses and testing them on mice.

It is probably correct, according to the known evidence, that it was manufactured. “Chimeric’ in the context of a virus means created in a lab, except this time it didn’t disappear like it was supposed to. this isn’t conspiracy theory stuff. It is from our leading scientific journal and papers published prior to this outbreak. November 2015

GingerBeer said...

Cruel neutrality my ass. When push comes to shove, our hostess will always default to her natural Leftist tendencies. Starting in November she'll be dancing around the fact she voted for the guy who put Dem in dementia. Economist Walter Williams put it best, "We have replaced what worked with what sounds good."

Browndog said...


Robert Barnes
‏ @Barnes_Law

China used its delayed reporting and overt deception to trick the world market into moving slowly while it bought up critical medical supplies on the cheap to the world's expense. #ChinaVirus


"China did not just stop selling masks — it also bought up much of the rest of the world’s supply. ... On Jan. 30, the last day for which data is available, China managed to import 20 million respirators and surgical masks in just 24 hours."

Big Mike said...

C. J. Peters has a story about the “sin nombre” virus. It’s a nasty form of hantavirus that comes and goes in the southwestern United States, growing and ebbing with the deer mouse population. What makes it particularly bad is the type of person it kills — people who are strong and very physically fit die quickly, and the more fit you are the more likely it is to kill you. The virologists wanted to call it “Four Corners Fever,” after the General area where the first victims occurred, but the Navajo Nation and officials from four states put their foot down hard. “Sin nombre” is Spanish for “no name” because they could not agree on a name for the virus.

rcocean said...

Whenever the MSM-DNC types don't want to report the real news - because it helps the R's or hurts "the narrative" - they manufacture some Bullshit controversy over what someone said or some word.

The fact that we're talking about it, means the fight against the virus is going well. Or that the MSM reporters are left-wing dumbshits. Probably both.

Fernandinande said...

The scientific names are SARS-CoV-23 or HCoV-19 and they're rarely used.

Naming a disease organism after its place of origin, at least the popular name, makes more sense than hiding that information for purposes of political correctness. I guess people might see a pattern, and we can't have that.

What's the scientific name for "Legionnaires disease"? Anybody? Bueller?

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Old hotness: This virus is the biggest threat to mankind! The only reasonable thing we can do in reaction is to destroy our economy and the futures of millions of Americans!

New hotness: The only bigger threat to humanity than this virus is refusing to be politically correct when discussing it.

tim in vermont said...

"Is it possible to believe it could be a bioweapon without being ostracized?”

They would have deployed it far differently and had a vaccine. I am not giving them any ideas to explain how though.

Maillard Reactionary said...

So now we're supposed to stop talking about Lyme disease? Marburg Virus?

Dutch Elm Disease-- does our exquisite sensitivity extend to trees? If not, why not?

How about Mad Cow disease? Didja know that not only cows can get it? Why do cows get blamed for it? Huh? Talk about blaming the victim!

This is all so very, very stupid, Professor. I expected more from you than this sort of mushbrain sentimentality. Shape up and ignore the language police, damn them. Don't you realize it never ends?

Static Ping said...

Well, I'd love for us all to get along.

That is somewhat difficult to do when the Chinese communists knew they had a dangerous disease that they almost certainly could contain and then spent their efforts denying that the disease existed, ordering that testing samples be destroyed, and silencing, arresting, or worse doctors and other whistle blowers, all while letting millions of people go in and out of Wuhan as they pleased and spreading the virus far and wide. By the time they admitted the issue, it was probably too late to contain it anywhere. The communist government condemned any travel restrictions on their country, despite knowing that not doing so would certainly spread the disease worldwide.

This has killed thousands of people, hospitalized many more, and caused massive economic damage. Now they are pushing an all out propaganda campaign to blame the United States for the disease. They have also threatened to withhold pharmaceuticals to those that displease them.

Let's not put too fine a point on this: this is an act of war. This is not some minor thing. Wars have been started for far less than this.

This is now and forever the Wuhan coronavirus or the Chinese coronavirus. Calling it anything else is denying reality.

rcocean said...

People are forgetting the real villain in all this:

Putin.

Because its always him.

Browndog said...

They would have deployed it far differently and had a vaccine. I am not giving them any ideas to explain how though.

So, pencil you in for "not possible"?

Maillard Reactionary said...

Breezy said: "Rhinovirus is the scientific name for a virus causing the common cold. Though “rhino” means “of the nose”, who thinks of that vs our wonderfully bulky rhinoceros?"

You mean I've been avoiding rhinos all these years for nothing?

rcocean said...

Last comment. This is why we love Trump. He just says the truth. Yeb! would've groveled and apologized, and never, ever, ever, mentioned the "Chinese virus" again.
Same with Mittens.


Derve Swanson said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

insty quote:

At press briefing, Trump and aides asked four times whether ‘Chinese virus’ is racist. “America is in the grip of a viral pandemic that originated in China. The virus is in more than 120 countries and has killed more than 8,000 people precisely because of China’s incompetence and malicious arrogance. And two White House correspondents used their access to the leader of the free world Wednesday to waste his and everyone else’s time with inane, vapid, useless questions based on Chinese communist propaganda. Way to go.”

Michael K said...

What's the scientific name for "Legionnaires disease"? Anybody? Bueller?

Actually, the organism is called Legionella.

Maillard Reactionary said...

"How would you like it if the river or forest in your beloved country had the same name as a horrible disease?"

Inasmuch as fewer noisy, lefty airheads visit the place as a result, I'm all for it.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Considering what evil liars they are - I think the virus was made by Adam Schitt, Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow, and the labs at Putin-Chi-Com.

Fernandinande said...

Shoulda been .."the name of the infectious agent causing Legionnaires disease"

brylun said...

Actually, I prefer to call it the "ChiComm" virus.

Static Ping said...

Ann: 2. Anyone looking what is happening will see the huge problems with using disease as a weapon. Everyone all over the world gets hit. You massively disrupt your own country and kill your own people.

You don't seem to understand. China does not care about that. They have more people than they need. They have more people than anyone. Losing 20% of their population to conquer the world would be a small price to pay. Mao was perhaps the only idiot in the world who thought he could "win" a nuclear exchange. Well, maybe him and Fidel Castro.

Anonymous said...

By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus," but I think Trump is using that term to hit back after Chinese officials made accusations against the United States. I'd like to see both stop, and I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places. Use scientific names, not place names or ethnicity names.

Oh gawd. Please Althouse, try to resist rushing to fall in line with the latest beyond-trivial indignation-order issued by Woke Central's language police.

Getting exercised about using innocuous terms that weren't bothering anybody until yesterday morning isn't polite, it isn't "scientific", it isn't important. It's asinine.

(Though to be charitable, maybe a lot of the complainers really are dumb enough to be cognitively over-loaded on learning that "Spanish flu" isn't really Spanish.)

Curious George said...

"D.D. Driver said...
I have no problem calling it the Chinese Virus or Wuhan Virus as long as its not used to place blame. It's no more offensive than referring to a San Francisco earthquake. If that's where the earthquake happened, why shouldn't we call it that? It's not the same thing as saying that San Franciscans are bad people who caused the earthquake. And its also true that these earthquakes affect other areas outside of San Francisco (just like the Wuhan Virus has now spread). Does make it offensive? Because it affected places that weren't San Francisco?

Wuhan Virus is just another natural disaster named after its epicenter."

What idiocy. This is not a natural disaster like an earthquake. It was caused by humans.

PJ said...

The use of place-names to identify diseases or other bad things is usually not problematic because usually it is clear that there is no basis for inferring any criticism of the people who live in that place (or of random members of that place’s dominant racial group). There is a problem this time because it is believed that the behavior of people in the referenced place contributed to both the origin (unsanitary markets and dietary practices) and the spread (suppression of information) of the disease. So the use of the place name is plausibly perceived as a method of shaming the people who engaged in those behaviors.

Even if one accepts that such shaming may reasonably be inferred from the use of the place-name in association with the disease, there is still the question whether the shaming of behavior that leads to pandemics is a bad thing.

iowan2 said...

You know, there really is a "wet market" in Wuhan where this took off.

Interesting. Ever wonder exactly why such markets exist? What they provide. Well, rather what need is being met. In the heart of an authoritarian communist nation, wet markets are just one example of pure capitalism. But why. What need is being met. Or more to the point, what prevents the central planners from filling the need? What need specifically?

Animal protein.

As the richest people on the planet extol the virtues of veganism, peasants who's default existence is veganism, demand animal protein.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Well. That escalated quickly.

Stand by for AA to post another topic: 3, 2, 1,...

Pookie Number 2 said...

One hesitates to pile on, but I am curious about whether Professor Althouse had any such concerns before the marching orders came down from our hypocritical media.

Xmas said...

"Pangolin's Revenge" is better.

traditionalguy said...

The article offered conclusions and repeated the man made or nature made issue is now forever settled....because they say so. Have they opened their data to the scientific community. If not their Authority is a pretense.

Fernandinande said...

Actually, the organism is called Legionella.

No it's not; that's the genus. You can't even use google properly.

Michael K said...

But I have Chinese friends and many of you probably don't. So you may not care.

So, some of your "best friends" are Chinese ?

JML said...

If only women were in charge of the world. Then there would be none of this mansplaining allowed.

Static Ping said...

The main risks I see of using a bioweapon are as follows:
1. Desperate enemies will start using other "unthinkable" weapons in response. A bioweapon would be one of the few attacks that would justify a nuclear response.
2. If a bioweapon fizzles out, you may find yourself with a sick population trying to fight a healthy and very angry enemy.

Michael K said...

No it's not; that's the genus. You can't even use google properly.

Sorry, this person is being an asshole again. I know the name and linked for you dummies.

mandrewa said...

Up until a few days ago, I was calling this Coronavirus 2019, because I think that's a name that is likely to be understood by everyone.

I have never called it the now official name of SARS-COV-2, because from the moment I saw it I felt this was an attempt to obscure what was being talked about and was also prone to misunderstanding, as in most people will think of SARS.

And most of the people saying Covid-19 are using it like it is the name of the virus, when in fact it is the name of the illness that people get from the Wuhan coronavirus. Which if you think about it is pretty confused already since a substantial number of people that get this have no symptoms.

But since a few days ago I have been calling it the Wuhan Coronavirus much of the time and the Coronavirus 2019 some of the time, depending on the context. And this is because I think this needs to be blamed on China, and in this way we can do it every time we say it, and also to indicate my contempt for the racist assholes that claim it's racist to blame this on China.

Static Ping said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jim Gust said...

I suppose you also don't like using "Lyme disease" to refer to Lyme disease. What name do you use instead?

Bob Boyd said...

It doesn't have to have been specifically created as a weapon to have escaped from the virology lab in Wuhan where they keep hundreds of bats. I read they have had incidents before at that lab when they had to quarantine someone who had been spattered with bat blood or urine or saliva. Maybe someone was contaminated and didn't realize it and went home or wherever.
Maybe looking at all those bats hanging there like ripe fruit gave a researcher big time cravings for bat soup. They got careless in their rush to hit the wet market and Bam! Pandemic.

I don't know about using scientific names. Look how many different scientific names they seem to have for this one virus. It's unclear, it's confusing, it has no soul, no feel, nothing to wrap all the associated emotion around. What would Dylan call it?

narciso said...

well he killed up to 60 million of his own people, so he thought how bad could nuclear war be?

Rick said...

How would you like it if the river or forest in your beloved country had the same name as a horrible disease?

Since I'm an adult it would never occur to me to worry about such a trivial issue.

toxdoc said...

Hmm, let's see comments have covered Lyme disease, norovirus, Rocky Mtn spotted fever etc. There is also Legionnaires (think of our veterans!), Hantavirus (also called Four Corners virus or Sin Nombre [awesome Luchador name]), St. Louis encephalitis (i used to catch birds for that one, also sprayed for mosquitoes and threw b.t. cookies in a any standing water etc), Valley fever from California. I think what is worse is naming diseases after the person who discovered or defined a disease..think of that evil Dr. Alzheimer robbing seniors of their memory and dignity in their last days. WHO defined the convention for disease naming in 2015 and stated it was purely to avoid stigma for persons, places and things. Working scientists had mixed feelings about it, some were for it, others not so much. In toxicology there are diseases named after the location of occurrence (Minamata was caused by methyl mercury) and lots of diseases defined by the occupation (wool sorters disease) and not necessarily the chemical/biological cause (Anthrax). Hypersensitivity pneumonitis is really neat that way. If you don't name the activity/occupation but, just the disease and presenting signs and symptoms it is hard to find the cause. But, if you know what triggered the disease (moldy mulch, seasonal microbiological peaks) you can better manage the incidence of disease

Greg Hlatky said...

To our Progressives the only acceptable name is Trump Flu.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

If we had it to do over again, we should not hurt the people of that city like that.

Are you trolling us? Nobody in Lyme, CT is "hurt" because a disease is named after their city. That is a ridiculous argument. A lot of diseases are named after the doctor or scientist that first identified them. Should they or their descendants be "hurt" about that? What is being attempted here is an effort to control our speech in order to control our thoughts. I refuse to submit to it.

“Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it."

Unknown said...

This pandemic was produced directly from the Chinese government's actions. Maybe not as a weapon, but they created it though their totalitarian impulses in dealing with their own people. The specific leaders who did this should be held accountable by the other nations of the world.

D.D. Driver said...

"Most people don't think it's a bioweapon. Because they don't want to believe it's a bioweapon, in my opinion."

Most people don't believe its bioweapon because IT WOULD BE THE STUPIDEST BIOWEAPON IMAGINABLE. Anthrax makes a good bioweapon because there it is highly lethal and doesn't transmit person to person. A cold on steroids? Your own people are going to get sick and die. What advantage is gained by creating a bioweapon that will hurt your own people as bad and possibly even worse than your enemy?!

It's an incredible allegation that flies in the face of all logic. Before would even flirt with that theory, I'm gonna need a little evidence and not emotional pants pissing fear based conspiracy mongering.

tim in vermont said...

"So, pencil you in for "not possible”?”

I just gave my position replete with links from reputable sources prior to the outbreak. I think it’s highly unlikely to be a weapon, highly likely to be man made, Althouse’s sensibilities notwithstanding. Most people only pretend to think though, and go with their feelings and there “sense of what is happening” which only works if you are already an expert. Bayesian logic only works with experts.

I vote for ChiCom Virus though.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

""Live with it. Lyme, Connecticut, does."

If we had it to do over again, we should not hurt the people of that city like that. It doesn't matter that they could put up with it."

OK, you're surely trolling your commenters now.

Personally, I'm calling it nothing but KungFlu from now on.

Browndog said...

Soon we're headed off to the big city in post-apocalyptic America in search of milk and eggs since the supply has dried up in our surrounding little towns.

All because of this damned Silky Soft Rose Pedal Disease.

Martin said...

1. I am just who thinks this occurred naturally, but the argument that we can prove it was not manufactured seems weak.

2. Interesting that we have had things like Spanish flu, Ebola, Zika, Lyme Disease, Marburg, Hong Kong flu, Asian flu, and a zillion others named after places where they were first observed, first isolated, gained notoriety, or whatever, but it is only now that this becomes a problem.

3. Yeah, I, too, wish China wouldn't accuse the US, but it worked for the USSR on HIV back ca. 1982, people still believe those lies. I will not criticize Trump for hitting back. They started it, they should stop it, and when they do, and say they were wrong, then I will worry about Trump. At least we have a Pres willing to defend our country and its honor.

Laslo Spatula said...

"It's an incredible allegation that flies in the face of all logic."

Of course, almost all of Mao's work fits this, too.

I am Laslo.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Just saw this - Yay for government-run healthcare!!

UK has about 5K ventilators for 63M people
Canada has about 5K for about 37M
France has about 5K ventilators for 67M
Germany has about 25K for 83M
US has about 170K ventilators for about 330M people

D.D. Driver said...

"This pandemic was produced directly from the Chinese government's actions. Maybe not as a weapon, but they created it though their totalitarian impulses in dealing with their own people. The specific leaders who did this should be held accountable by the other nations of the world."

There are a lot reasons to despise the Chinese government, but a natural disaster isn't one of them. But, those who do think this is appropriate,shouldn't be a crybabies when people blame Trump for not doing enough to prevent US deaths. Personally, I think blaming Trump is utter bullshit. But so is blaming the Chinese.

Unknown said...

In our house we call it "The Wu Wu".

exhelodrvr1 said...

Just saw this - Yay for government-run healthcare!!

UK has about 5K ventilators for 63M people
Canada has about 5K for about 37M
France has about 5K ventilators for 67M
Germany has about 25K for 83M
US has about 170K ventilators for about 330M people

Anonymous said...

AA: How would you like it if the river or forest in your beloved country had the same name as a horrible disease?

I'm sure the residents of Lyme and Hong Kong are in need of ongoing supportive psychotherapy consequent to that trauma.

Sadly, people living along the Ebola River probably aren't as serious-minded as AWFLs about this enormous problem, and spend their days attending to their usual trivial concerns.

I say scientific names should be used, not geographic or ethnic.

And I say it's spinach, and I say to hell with it.

TrespassersW said...

Let's call it the CCP virus.

Problem solved.

Fernandinande said...

“Sin nombre” is Spanish for “no name” because they could not agree on a name for the virus

I'd never heard that (I'm in the area, and have only heard it called hantavirus); the Wiki says Indians didn't like it being named after Canyon del Muerto* on the rez, and if Indians don't like something, that's the end of the discussion.

*It might be the coolest canyon I've ever seen, second, maybe, to the Grand Canyon.

TrespassersW said...

Let's call it the CCP virus.

Problem solved.

tim in vermont said...

So I offered a link to Nature that showed that they were giving bat viral diseases to mice after modifying the virus. The wet market is sort of a red herring. Is it that hard to imagine somebody selling research animals that they were supposed to burn and destroy all evidence of, to a ready market paying premium prices for live exotic animals?

“Three squeaks” anybody?

exhelodrvr1 said...

Deer aren't the only animal to carry deer ticks! Think what they feel like!!

Ray - SoCal said...

And how many are against calling it the Chinese Coronavirus, because of wanting to keep on China’s good side?

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

At least Trump isn't calling it the Sum Ting Wong syndrome.

mockturtle said...

How about Mad Cow disease? Didja know that not only cows can get it? Why do cows get blamed for it? Huh? Talk about blaming the victim!

Exactly, Phidippus! Consider the bovine humiliation over this unfortunate eponym.

Jersey Fled said...

I can't get too worked up about whether someone calls it a Chinese virus or not, but why does the media always use the word "novel" to describe the Corona virus?

Example from just this morning:

"Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the company's molecular test for novel coronavirus (COVID-19)."

It drives me nuts.

Metalman said...

A Brief, Terrifying History of Viruses Escaping From Labs

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/f1lez4/a_brief_terrifying_history_of_viruses_escaping/

Automatic_Wing said...

There are a lot reasons to despise the Chinese government, but a natural disaster isn't one of them. But, those who do think this is appropriate,shouldn't be a crybabies when people blame Trump for not doing enough to prevent US deaths. Personally, I think blaming Trump is utter bullshit. But so is blaming the Chinese.

Again, this virus didn't originate in China due to bad luck or some accident of geography. It happened because of a specific Chinese cultural practice - the sale and butchery of exotic mammals at wet markets. That is also where SARS came from.

Unless the Chinese government does something about the wet markets, another pandemic is going to come out of there in 5 or 10 years.

We should not be afraid to attribute blame where it is warranted. Shielding China from responsibility is only going to maintain the status quo and breed more diseases at these markets.

Bob Boyd said...

Fucking commies and their fucked up commie shit. Why are we mollycoddling them? This is a Chi-com virus from Communist China. Let's not sugar coat it for one goddamn minute.

Xi is a chronic fuckup, he's meaner than a striped snake and enough is enough with this guy. He needs to get the international relations version of a blanket party. Maybe that will straighten him up.

tim in vermont said...

As more evidence that it kills the old and week, Playboy Magazine has succumbed to the virus.

https://twitter.com/blsandford/status/1240640965452468230

Rory said...

"Your own people are going to get sick and die. What advantage is gained by creating a bioweapon that will hurt your own people as bad and possibly even worse than your enemy?!"

It remains standard progressive conspiracy theory that whites pursued a strategy of loading up blankets with smallpox for presentation to tribal people.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

There are a lot reasons to despise the Chinese government, but a natural disaster isn't one of them.

The Chinese government actively suppressed information on the disease when it first appeared. And now they are spreading propaganda blaming the US Army for introducing the disease into the Wuhan province. So yeah, I'm going to add this pandemic to my reasons to despise the Chinese government.

Freder Frederson said...

Just saw this - Yay for government-run healthcare!!

Where did you see this? Because everything I see says we have less than 100,000 ventilators available. The last comprehensive study was conducted in 2010, and that determined that there were about 62,000 in the country. Which, assuming your other numbers are correct (and I bet they aren't), Germany is in better shape than us.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

It's a step in the right direction to give scientific names to diseases, and not name them after countries or regions, or give them names that impugn ethnicities, but it's beyond unfair to rip on Trump or conservatives for calling it Wuhan or Chinese when those were the terms used by EVERYONE last month, including self-described ignorant racist Eugene Gu. In fact, Gu is, in his own words, "the most ignorant and racist among us". Changing the name is fine; doing so as a moving goalpost in Woke Calvinball is politics as usual for the Left.

Anyway, I'm going to keep calling it ChiCom flu.

D.D. Driver said...

"What idiocy. This is not a natural disaster like an earthquake. It was caused by humans."

Pandemics have happened throughout history. If the origins of this one is different than every other pandemic in history, I'll believe it when I see the evidence. It will take years to fully understand this virus (or viruses) and its spread. Why was South Korea and Taiwan spared and Italy ravaged? Why doesn't children seem to present symptoms? Everyone has their favorite pet theory but no one knows anything. We don't even have solid information about how long the virus can survive outside a host or how long patients are contagious before they present symptoms. Everything is a best guess.

Everything right now--EVERYTHING--needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Anonymous said...

AA: If we had it to do over again, we should not hurt the people of that city like that.

rme

smh

TrespassersW said...

Generally speaking, any time someone presumes to demand that I comply to their prescriptions regarding the words I can and cannot use, my gut reaction is to say "Have you seen my middle finger? Allow me to show it to you."

For commies and their useful idiots in the lickspittle media, that reaction is doubled.

D.D. Driver said...

The Chinese government actively suppressed information on the disease when it first appeared.

And Trump emphatically downplayed the disease at the outset. These are government officials doing what every government official does deny, deny, deny until you have to admit.

mockturtle said...

Everything right now--EVERYTHING--needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Perhaps, more appropriately, with hydroxychloroquine.

Ken B said...

Worst post ever.

Civility bullshit.

Hardin validation.

Makes a mockery of “better than nothing is a high standard”

Exposes hypocrisy of “is your comment helping”

Quaestor said...

Rick writes: "Since I'm an adult it would never occur to me to worry about such a trivial issue."

👍!

Nonapod said...

D.D. Driver said...Most people don't believe its bioweapon because IT WOULD BE THE STUPIDEST BIOWEAPON IMAGINABLE. Anthrax makes a good bioweapon because there it is highly lethal and doesn't transmit person to person. A cold on steroids? Your own people are going to get sick and die. What advantage is gained by creating a bioweapon that will hurt your own people as bad and possibly even worse than your enemy?!

Exactly right. At this point in time, a nation state using a highly infectious virus as a "bio weapon" would be an extrodinarily bad idea due to it being completely uncontrollable and almost certainly yielding an untenable amount of collateral damage. Weapons are only useful if they can be primarily targeted at your enemies and only your enemies (unless you're a terrorist and/or an omnicidal lunatic obviously). The communist Chinese government may be a lot of things, but insane isn't one of them.

At some point in the future it will almost certainly be possible to create designer viruses that could literally target a single the genome of a specific person or a small group of closely related people (like a family). But fortunately we're still quite a ways of from an 'assassination virus' of that sort.

Of course, people are going to believe whatever they're going to believe regardless of reasonable arguments.

Mark said...

Sorry -- the left's politicization of science (and everything else) has destroyed the credibility of what any of these people say.

Metalman said...

"Wuhan Kung Flu"

PBS Reporter Repeatedly Says ‘Kung Flu’ While Asking POTUS if It’s Appropriate
https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/03/18/pbs-reporter-repeatedly-says-kung-flu-while-asking-potus-if-its-appropriate/

exhelodrvr1 said...

Freder,
1) Your arithmetic skills aren't very good. You're obviously a liberal
2) The stats were from a tweet - don't know where the author got them. However, I found articles that gave similar numbers
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/business/coronavirus-ventilator-shortage.html
https://www.ft.com/content/5a2ffc78-6550-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea68b5

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

This is in no way a “natural disaster” either. It is a public health failure on an enormous scale by China, which not only refused to contain the outbreak but took measures to obscure the epidemic while at the same time buying up masks and respirators, knowing they would be in demand once word got out about Wuhan. Then they threatened to delay shipments of medical chemicals needed to make antivirals. These actions are not natural but they have created a disaster of global scale.

Be like a tree said...

Washington Redskins, "Hold my firewater".

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Pandemics have happened throughout history. If the origins of this one is different than every other pandemic in history, I'll believe it when I see the evidence.

We know a lot more about how pandemics start and, this is the important part so please pay attention, how to prevent them or mitigate their effects. The Chinese government did the exact opposite of what should have been done during the initial stages of the outbreak in Wuhan and therefore exposed the rest of the world to far greater risks. That's why people are unhappy with them. Tell you what, when LA or San Fran cause a major outbreak of some medieval disease like typhus because they refuse to deal with their homeless problems, I'm going to blame their governments and most likely the federal government too.

Metalman said...

"I can't get too worked up about whether someone calls it a Chinese virus or not, but why does the media always use the word "novel" to describe the Corona virus?"

Novel virus = unique, never seen before

dna sequence matches no previously known sequence

narciso said...

meanwhile, kim foxx, jossie smolletts enabler was reelected, thanks to soros money,

exhelodrvr1 said...

Why was South Korea and Taiwan spared and Italy ravaged?

South Korea wasn't spared, but they took very quick action to limit the spread.
Taiwan was, so far, but they also took very quick action.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/11/what-the-rest-of-the-world-can-learn-from-taiwans-success-containing-coronavirus/#.XnLdubUT2t4.twitter

mandrewa said...

Oh, Aunty Trump, I saw what you posted. And I think that's absolutely astonishing.

I'm not sure people get it.

Here's the paper: A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence

And it takes a while to read a paper like this, and absorb it, but still quickly glancing through it, it appears that this group of researchers:

(a) took a bat coronavirus, genetically modified it, and showed it would be highly infectious in human beings;

and (b) this man-made virus, made back in 2015, seems to work just like the Wuhan Coronavirus.

And (c), something I independently have heard of, a Chinese scientist, associated with this research is alleged to have illegally taken samples of this chimeric virus, and other viruses, back to China.

Metalman said...

"I can't get too worked up about whether someone calls it a Chinese virus or not, but why does the media always use the word "novel" to describe the Corona virus?"

Novel virus = unique, DNA sequence not seen before

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