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Trump dubs COVID-19 'Chinese virus' despite hate crime risks

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Evan Vucci/AP
President Donald Trump speaks during press briefing with the coronavirus task force, at the White House, Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in Washington, as Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma, Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, listen (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Donald Trump
Posted at 3:05 PM, Mar 18, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-18 18:05:43-04

President Donald Trump says it's not racist to call COVID-19 the “Chinese virus" to emphasize where the pandemic started.

Yet ever since infections started appearing in the United States, Asian Americans have shared stories of minor aggression to blatant attacks from people blaming them for the virus that has swept the world. Trump says he's just being accurate and thinks Asian Americans would agree that the virus started in China.

John Yang, with the group Asian Americans Advancing Justice, says the remark amounts to racial stereotyping. He says Asians are not genetically prone to transmit the virus and says nicknames like “Kung-flu” are not funny.

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