The University of Minnesota responded to a student who said it was “biased language” to suggest the coronavirus originated in China by scrubbing mention of the origin of the Chinese virus from its website.
“A student reported that an article by the School of Public Health’s website used language that suggested that COVID-19 started in China and questioned if this was biased language,” a November 2020 complaint said, according to a report by College Fix, which filed a public records request with the University of Minnesota system.
The school then responded to the individual who reported the language on its Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) website, and the email “was forwarded to CIDRAP so they can address the matter.”
Following the complaint, it appears the School of Public Health removed mention of the coronavirus having originated in China.
A March 2020 archive of the website reads, “CIDRAP is tracking and analyzing the rapidly evolving worldwide outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease that originated in China.”
Now, the website reads, “CIDRAP is tracking and analyzing the rapidly evolving novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.”
“I do not have further information to share about these matters,” Tina Mirasam, the director of the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office, told College Fix regarding the update.
In October 2020, a student had also reported an unnamed professor for asking for students to pray that President Donald Trump would recover from the coronavirus, the report adds of its public records request findings.
“A student wrote to report that a professor during a Zoom lecture urged students to pray for the President of the U.S. who has COVID-19,” read an October complaint, which the bias team then turned over to the equal opportunity office.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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