While speaking on MSNBC on Wednesday, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel stated that China feels they are being scapegoated by people calling the coronavirus the Wuhan flu, Wuhan virus, or China virus. And that the virus “came from the territory of China, but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus.”
Engel said, “It is easy to scapegoat people. And that is what has always happened when there have been pandemics or epidemics, that foreigners are attacked, foreigners sometimes physically attacked. If you look at what happened during the Middle Ages. There was lots and lots of scapegoating against an ethnic group or a religious group whenever there were pandemics that effected the society and frightened a lot of people. And China certainly feels that is what is happening now with people calling it the Wuhan flu or the Wuhan virus or the China virus. This is a virus that came from the territory of China, but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus. It doesn’t speak Chinese. It doesn’t target Chinese people. It targets human beings who happen to touch their eyes, nose, or mouth.”
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