China virus sign ‘could stir racism’

CONTROVERSY continues to shroud a Gold Coast barber’s decision to blame the “China virus” for a reduction in trading hours, with a Griffith University academic emphasising the importance of using the correct terminology when referring to the coronavirus.

“When we’ve seen disease outbreak naming orientated towards a place, and we’ve seen it around the world and in the US, it can foster racism or embolden racist or xenophobia approaches towards certain groups of people,” said Professor Caitlin Byrne, Director of the Griffith Asia Institute.

“This issue has been picked up by the United Nations Secretary-General and the head of the World Health Organisation and they’ve released important guidelines and considerations that should be taken into account when naming a virus.”

Prof Byrne said using the proper terminology for the outbreak, such as COVID-19, was important to ensure an entire population or entire groups of people were not stigmatised, whether intentionally or not.

It comes as Nerang barber Chris Manning’s decision to post a sign on his shopfront blaming the “China virus” for a reduction in trading hours received overwhelming support from the Bulletin and Courier Mail readers.

Of the nearly 4000 people who responded to a poll asking if they were offended by the sign, 85 per cent answered “no” they weren’t.

Hundreds of others threw their support behind Mr Manning, praising his “courage” and “guts” for not bowing down to political correctness. Dozens of readers said that because the virus originated in China they saw nothing wrong with calling it the “China virus”.

“China virus is the same as Spanish flu, country of origin,” wrote Tubby.

Meanwhile, a handful of others disagreed with using the term to describe COVID-19, with Susan saying: “I think the sign is inappropriate, racist and not at all Australian and that we should stick to calling it the coronavirus. This is not America after all.”

Ross said he was not offended by the sign but “it will provoke unreasoning actions against people of Asian descent”.