Avoid racist terms for coronavirus variants

10 June 2021 - 09:29
By Reader Letter
Some of these labellings have racist undertones as the World Health Organisation recently mentioned, says the writer.
Image: 123RF/perig76 Some of these labellings have racist undertones as the World Health Organisation recently mentioned, says the writer.

First we had kung flu (according to former US president Donald Trump) then the South African variant, then Brazilian variant and later British variant and the Indian variant.

At the early stages of the corona crisis, Italy (in the north) was the epicentre of the disease. But no Italian variant. Why? The British variant is due to the hatred for the Brexit decision of the British government and people.

If Britain was still a European Union member there would be no British variant. Why is there no Chinese variant? China was the epicentre of the Covid-19 virus.

India has 3,000 Covid-19 deaths a day with a population of 1.2bn people compared to 7,700 Covid deaths in the US with a population of 331m people. Some of these labellings have racist undertones as the World Health Organisation recently mentioned.

I hope the media will be less racist and more objective. Give the Covid-19 nonracist names as suggested by the WHO.

Sears Appalsamy, Breda, Netherlands