Majority of Americans Agree with Trump Calling COVID-19 ‘Chinese Virus’: Polls

by Peter Hasson

 

A majority of American adults agree with using the term “Chinese virus” to describe coronavirus, despite media members pillorying President Donald Trump for using that term, three polls showed.

Three consecutive national surveys by The Harris Poll found that more than 50% of Americans said they somewhat or strongly agree with Trump using the term “Chinese virus.”

The poll results make for a stark contrast with the national media’s reaction to the term “Chinese virus.”

MSNBC anchor John Heilemann said on air in March that Trump’s use of the term “Chinese virus” is “nakedly racist and obviously racist and blatantly racist.”

CNN opinion writer Jill Filipovic similarly argued that using the term “Chinese virus” was “xenophobic racism,” and compared it to scapegoating European Jews for the Black Death.

Other journalists, from Vox writers to The New York Times editorial board, have denounced the president’s use of the term.

But the American public seems to disagree.

The three Harris polls, all of which are from late March or early April, showed 52%, 54% and 52% of Americans agreeing with Trump.

The most recent Harris poll, which surveyed 1,993 adults between April 3 and 5, also found that an overwhelming majority of Americans hold the Chinese government responsible for the virus’s spread. That’s in line with scientific research on the subject.

One study found that up to 95% of COVID-19’s spread could have been prevented if the Chinese government had acted three weeks sooner than they did.

A majority of Americans, 58%, agree that China should “be required to pay other countries for the spread of the virus,” the most recent Harris poll found.

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Peter Hasson is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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4 Thoughts to “Majority of Americans Agree with Trump Calling COVID-19 ‘Chinese Virus’: Polls”

  1. Kevin

    I do too, with a subtle, but important nuance.

    It’s the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Don’t let the brutal authoritarian CCP give the Chinese people a bad reputation. Remember, it was the CCP (and their henchmen, the WHO) that gave us and the world, the SARS CoV-2 virus and Covid-19 disease, by lying about and covering up the magnitude and the human-to-human transmission.

    We can not and must not let the blame fall anywhere but where it is deserved!

  2. William Delzell

    If we’re going to fight this disease pandemic effectively, we won’t do it by wasting time looking for scapegoats, be they Chinese or somebody else. We need to concentrate all our energies on fighting this virus, providing our nurses and doctors with all the resources they need, curing as many patients as possible, and making it safe for people to abandon their lock down. Only by constructive action instead of by destructive actions like scapegoating can we ever hope to end this pandemic and enable a revival of the economy. I am fed up with those who are more interested in blaming the Chinese instead of devoting their energies to combating this disease once and for all!

    1. Steve Allen

      Scapegoating my butt, the Chinese were responsible for it, containing it, or being open about it. When this is all said and done there will be tens of thousands of people globally that will have needlessly died because of it. It is setting economies back around the world that will take years to recover. And speaking of scapegoating that is all the Democrats do. First President Trump was doing too much to stop the spread of the virus, he was limiting travel while at the same time, Pelosi and and other Dem mayors were encouraging people to go to the Chinese new year festivals in their respective cities. And now, they are bellowing that he’s not doing enough.

  3. Steve Allen

    It’s the Chinese virus, and it came from a level 4 bio-safety lab, not a wet market. They need to be held accountable, but as the UN is as socialistic as China, the UN won’t do a damn thing.

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