XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! As Pandemic Exploded, Wuhan’s Bat Lady Asked Scientists to Change the Name ‘For the Chinese People:’
What was Dr. Shi’s reason for the request? It had to be for scientific accuracy and clarity, right? Nope. In the comments document attached to the email, Shi says it’s a matter of feelings and Chinese pride – and even mixes in a little “after all we’ve lost, this would be a terrible reminder”:
“By 11 February 2020, the new coronavirus had caused more than 40,000 confirmed infections and more than 1,000 deaths, mostly in mainland China, in spite of efforts by the Chinese Government and its people to contain the spread of the virus in past weeks. It goes without saying that the effects of the epidemic on all aspects of Chinese life are devastating and, possibly, irreversible. Consequently, appropriately naming the virus and disease becomes a matter of importance to the Chinese people…”
What? Why would the name of the virus be of “great importance to the Chinese people?” We can call it anything we want to just as long as we’re trying to figure out a way to stop it and treat the virus they foisted upon the globe. Why wasn’t that the concern of Chinese virologists when naming variants like the UK Variant or the South African variant? Is the naming of the variants not of “great importance” to those people as well?
Yet Shi continues, fully utilizing American SJW guilt trip techniques:
“All proposed names are either too generic, or too similar to previous well-known viruses, or contain an Arabic number. This makes it hard to remember or recognize, leading to a tendency among the general population and scientists alike to use a shorthand term such as ‘Wuhan coronavirus’ or ‘Wuhan pneumonia.’ This has, in fact, been the case since it was named 2019-nCoV. This practice would, however, stigmatize and insult the people in Wuhan, who are still suffering from the outbreak.”
Gee, doesn’t that sound like the talking points that came out of every single Democrat and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media around that time? Also, for a virologist to argue that a scientific name should be changed because “it’s too hard for the general population to remember all those numbers” is pretty unheard of.
And the DNC-MSM turned on a dime, since their parent companies need to keep that sweet cashflow from China flowing into movies and amusement parks:
As Jim Geraghty wrote in October of 2019, when the CCP-NBA connection exposed for millions of Americans to see: We’re Not Exporting Our Values to China — We’re Importing Theirs.
Further thoughts at the Lid blog: MSM Hacks Admit They Spiked Wuhan Lab Leak Story Because Trump Backed It (Video).