Trump calls coronavirus ‘kung flu’ at Tulsa rally
- Trump used the racial term after saying that there were multiple names for the virus
- US president had previously been criticised for referring to it as the ‘Chinese virus’
US President Donald Trump called the coronavirus “kung flu” during a rally in Oklahoma, employing a slang term that’s been criticised as racist while claiming increased diagnostic testing has driven up US case totals.
The Trump campaign distributed masks to people entering the arena but few in the audience wore them.
Trump complained that he was criticised for risking the health of his supporters by holding his indoor rally, saying that nationwide protests against police brutality this month should have endured similar scrutiny.
“You never hear them saying: ‘they’re not wearing their mask’,” during coverage of the protests, he said. The coronavirus is believed to be much more easily spread indoors at close quarters than outdoors.
The president then mused about the term Covid-19, short for Coronavirus Disease 2019, often used as official shorthand for the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
“That name gets further and further away from China, as opposed to calling it the Chinese virus,” he said.
Trump said that he had “done a phenomenal job” with the US outbreak and “saved hundreds of thousands of lives” by limiting travel from China and Europe as the pandemic spread overseas.
He claimed falsely that the growing US outbreak, the largest in the world, is the result of increased testing for infections.
Trump drops ‘Chinese virus’ terminology in White House briefing
“Testing is a double-edged sword,” he said. “When you do testing to that extent you’re going to find more people. So I said to my people, slow the testing down.”
There’s no indication that has actually happened, as the number of tests performed nationally have been well over half a million on each of the past two days, according to the Covid Tracking Project, which relies on state data. Total tests administered now exceed 26.5 million.
Trump later returned to the name of the disease.
“It’s a disease, without question, has more names than any disease in history,” he said. “I can name - kung flu. I can name - 19 different versions of names.”
Trump last said the term “kung flu”, a pun on the Chinese martial art, at a White House news conference March 18, after CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, who is Chinese-American, asked whether it was true that an unnamed White House official had used the phrase, and if Trump thought it was wrong.
Trump’s reference to ‘Chinese virus’ smeared our country, says Beijing
“No, not at all,” Trump said at the time. But he ceased using the terms “Chinese virus” or “kung flu” for a time after criticism, resuming only recently as he has sought to pin blame for the US outbreak on the government in Beijing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has used the term “Wuhan virus” in remarks.
