Published 19:15 IST, June 25th 2020
Donald Trump calls COVID-19 an 'odd name', asks 'what is 19?'
The US President Donald Trump recently made ‘racist’ jokes on the “odd name” of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that originated in China.
Known for starting conversations with his statements, the US President Donald Trump recently made ‘racist’ jokes on the “odd name” of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that originated in China. While addressing the young crowd in Arizona on June 23, Trump appeared to showcase confusion over what “19” means in the name of the disease which was met by loud cheers of the audience.
Starting off by saying that he can give “19 to 20” names of the coronavirus, he listed phrases including “Chinese Virus”, “Wuhan” or “Kung Flu”. The US President also noted that “many” people do not understand why the name of the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 has a ‘19’ attached to it. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had previously said that it was 19 stands for 2019 referring to the year it was first discovered.
US President said, “What I said the other night was there has never been anything where they have so many names. I could give you 19 or 20 names for that right. It’s got all different names.”
“Wuhan...Wuhan was catching on. Coronavirus. Kung Flu. Covid...Covid-19. I say ‘what’s 19’, some people can’t explain what the 19. Covid-19...I say ‘that’s an odd name’. I could give you many, many names. Some people call it the Chinese Flu, China Flu,” he added.
Donald Trump even met with Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey and the Border patrol officials and boasted that the US border ‘has never been more secure’. After visiting the US-Mexico border that according to him 'stopped COVID-19', the US President even addressed a group of young Republicans at a Pheinix megachurch in an event called ‘Students for Trump’. At packed Dream City Church, Trump hailed the “patriotic young Americans who stand up tall for America and refuse to kneel to the radical left.”
'I don't kid'
US President's address to the young crowd at Arizona, came after he clarified that he was not joking when he told the rally visitors in Tulsa that he asked his staff to slow down on coronavirus testing. Trump said, “I don’t kid” to a reporter on June 22 after senior members of his own administration had claimed that the US President was kidding and the comment was made in jest. Donald Trump had said on June 20 in Oklahoma at his first rally since the COVID-19 pandemic that he asked his staff to “slow the testing down, please” because more testing of the novel coronavirus leads to more number of cases in the country and “it sounds bad”.
Updated 19:15 IST, June 25th 2020