World Health Organization "Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it:"
Official names have been announced for the virus responsible for COVID-19 (previously known as “2019 novel coronavirus”) and the disease it causes. The official names are:
Disease
Virus
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2)
Recommended reading: "Coronavirus Gets A New Name: COVID-19. Here’s Why That Is Important," (Forbes, Feb 11 2020)
Asian American and Pacific Islander Civil Rights Organizations on the Coronavirus: “Not a Green Light to Target Asian Americans and Asian immigrants with Racism and Hate”
On February 07, 2020, the The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) issued a statement regarding racism and COVID-19, which reads:
"While the coronavirus represents a legitimate public health concern, it is not a green light to target Asian Americans and Asian immigrants with racism and hate. We are concerned with the growing xenophobic rhetoric that harkens back to the dehumanizing, anti-Asian trope of the “yellow peril,” that was used during the 19th century. We have consistently stood against efforts to cast our community as “perpetual foreigners,” and sadly, we find ourselves having to do so again.
We call on news outlets and social media platforms to do more to curb racist and inaccurate content in addition to removing misinformation on the coronavirus alone.
National Director, Gregg Orton added: “Many Asian Americans are just as concerned as everyone else about the coronavirus--even more so considering how in some cases, our extended families could be impacted. But to let someone’s health status be a measure of how American they are is absurd. Mass hysteria will not help, and neither will bigotry. Be better than that.”
