Fox’s Kilmeade Defends Calling COVID 19 the ‘Chinese Virus’: ‘An Accurate Term of Where It Started’

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade went out of his way to swat down the accusations of racist undertones that have been directed at those who refer to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus.”

As Fox & Friends starts to take Covid-19 seriously now, Kilmeade noted how China is antagonizing the U.S. in the midst of the pandemic, and President Donald Trump is responding by calling coronavirus the “Chinese virus.”

“While some here say that’s a racist term,” Kilmeade continued, “it’s actually just an accurate term of where it started and them not being transparent about thousand started really hurt literally the rest of the planet.”

Kilmeade’s defense of those who use the term “Chinese virus,” or alternatively the “Wuhan virus,” touches on those who argue that both terms are standard naming convention because the virus originated from China, and their government’s inadequate attempts to stop it allowed for a global pandemic.

The counterargument comes from those who say that invoking China or Wuhan in the virus’s name are deliberately fueling provocative racial stigmas against Chinese people.

Public discussion on these stigmas reached a notable point on Tuesday when Asian-American CBS reporter Weijia Jiang told her Twitter followers that a White House official called the coronavirus the “kung flu” right in front of her.

Watch above, via Fox News.