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Call It ‘Coronavirus’ (The Editorial Board)

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Call It ‘Coronavirus’ (The Editorial Board)

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Disease and prejudice have long gone hand in hand. We can do better in 2020.

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The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

We've been down this road before, too many times. In the 14th century the Black Death provoked mass violence against Jews, Catalans, clerics and beggars; when syphilis spread in the 15th century, it was called variously the Neapolitan, French, Polish and German disease, depending on who was pointing the blame; when the plague struck Honolulu in 1899, officials burned down Chinatown. And so on, down to our times, when epidemics like Ebola, SARS and Zika fueled animus toward specific regions or peoples.

Here we are in 2020, with Asians being assailed across the United States and around the world as purported sources of the "Chinese flu," the "Wuhan coronavirus" or simply the "foreign virus." Once again, a mysterious, fast-spreading and sometimes lethal disease is exacerbating racism and hatred - only now with the help of the potent megaphone of social media.

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Coronavirus Racism Infected My High School

A Chinese-American teenager on what she and her friends are encountering during the outbreak.

"Everyone knows Chinese people are disgusting." "They'll eat any type of animal." "They're dirty." That's what my classmate said, just days after the Coronavirus outbreak started in the United States. It felt like a stab to my chest. I'm Chinese-American, and this is someone that I've gone to school with for almost three years, who I consider a friend. But it's no wonder that she feels this way. "An obscure virus arising from a meat market in eastern China." As the Coronavirus spreads, there's another virus spreading that we need to be talking about. "A woman who's Asian says she was punched by another woman in midtown Manhattan and she accused her of having the Covid-19 virus." "I don't want him [inaudible] me. Tell him to move." Young Asian-Americans like me are feeling hate infect every part of our lives. "And I'd like to just ask the Chinese for a formal apology." Not only do we have to be afraid about our health. But we have to be afraid about being ourselves. Class basically just started. One of the girls said all Chinese people were disgusting. And so I literally like raised my hand up and was like "I'm Chinese." She didn't even say sorry. She didn't. She just like blew past it I guess. And then she like kept going on about it. I never knew it would happen to me, especially at this school. Good morning. Morning. Yeah, basically this Chinese restaurant was like texting their customers saying none of our staff have been to China. We have no contact with the Coronavirus. Please like like, come back to us. And people were like making fun of it. There are thousands and thousands of cases in Italy. But no one's boycotting Olive Garden. No seriously like, no one is boycotting a mom and pop's pizza place. Like it's the same thing. Historically, pandemics have stoked xenophobia. In the 19th century, people spread rumors that Irish immigrants carried cholera, and tuberculosis was known as the "Jewish disease." In 1900, when a Chinese man supposedly died of the plague in San Francisco, Chinatown residents were forcibly quarantined by police, while white residents were allowed to leave the area. It seems like since the start of the Coronavirus outbreak schools have been a Petri dish for racism. It's dangerous to normalize behavior like this for people my age. So you just spoke with the other student. So can you tell me what happened? She understood my frustration and anger. They didn't really mean to say that. And they were actually making a generalization. And so she apologized to me basically. And I really appreciated it. Coronavirus may have originated in China. But the disease doesn't discriminate in the way that people do. It's extremely important that people have accurate information on how to stay safe. So we can kill this virus without spreading another one.

A Chinese-American teenager on what she and her friends are encountering during the outbreak. Credit Credit... The New York Times

As the coronavirus has spread from its beachhead in Wuhan, China, old anti-Asian prejudices have spread with it, from the "Yellow Peril" canard that led to the lynching of Chinese in the 1870s to stereotypes of Chinese as dirty and decrepit.

As The Times reported on Monday, Chinese-Americans and other Asians lumped together with them by racists are being beaten, spat on, yelled at and insulted from coast to coast, driving some members of the maligned minority to purchase firearms in the fear of worse to come as the pandemic deepens.

The United States is not alone in this blight of xenophobia. Japan's Kyodo News agency described similar incidents of anti-Asian bigotry wherever the coronavirus has struck: Asian students pelted with eggs in Leicestershire, England, or people in Egypt yelling out "corona" when passing Asians in the street. Vile posts on social media have made graphic threats in rants against Asians over the coronavirus.

However much mystery still surrounds the coronavirus, these are not the Dark Ages, and there really should be no reason to remind people that this terrible new virus makes no distinction among races or nations. Though it makes good medical sense to keep a distance from people who have been to an area with a high rate of infection - which today is effectively anywhere - it is foolish and malicious to hold the Chinese (or any other) people responsible for the spread of the virus, or to assume that they are somehow more likely to be its carriers.

A time of great fear and danger requires solidarity, humanity, sacrifice and hope, and not hysteria or hatred. That should be the message of the world's political, social, religious and corporate leaders as they race to find ways to cope with the lethal virus. Many leaders have done just that.

It is more than unfortunate, then, that President Trump, some members of his cabinet and some conservative politicians have opted to fan the bigotry by deliberately using the term "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese virus." Mr. Trump, who spent previous months calling it the coronavirus, started defending the use of "Chinese virus" last week. Photographs of a text of the speech he was reading seemed to show "Corona" lined out and "Chinese" written in the president's hand. Mr. Trump tweeted support of the Asian-American community on Monday, but his many supporters online had already embraced his formulation.

In tying the virus to China, the president has also adopted the argument of Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, that referring to Wuhan or China is payback for Chinese disinformation and for Beijing's delay in letting the world know of the outbreak. Of course, it is possible to hold the Chinese government accountable for its handling of the crisis and its spread of misinformation without maligning a nation of more than 1.3 billion people or the people of Chinese decent who make their homes in nations around the world.

The xenophobia and prejudices that result from naming new infectious diseases after places, people or animals are the reasons the World Health Organization has urged against doing so, and instead using generic descriptive terms like "coronavirus." Names like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish flu, swine flu or monkey pox, the W.H.O. said, can have serious consequences, whether provoking a backlash against members of a particular community or prompting needless slaughter of food animals.

In the end, though, the anti-Asian hatreds spread by the coronavirus are not solely the product of politics, but of the deep fears that have always accompanied the outbreak of lethal pathogens. It is for all Americans to try, in whatever ways they can, to remain united and compassionate as the disease invades all facets of our lives.

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Disease and prejudice have long gone hand in hand. We can do better in 2020. By The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom. We've been down this road before, too many times.

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his habit of calling coronavirus the "Chinese virus."

"It's not racist at all," Trump said at a White House press conference to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. "No, not at all."

Trump was asked about his persistent use of the term despite health officials saying that ethnicity does not cause the virus - and reports that dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese-Americans who have been blamed for allegedly spreading the coronavirus.

"Because it comes from China," Trump told the reporter who asked the question. "That's why."

"I want to be accurate."

The coronavirus pandemic originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The White House's Twitter account later Wednesday noted that a number of past pandemics had been known by the places where they originated, or where they were believed to have originated.

"Spanish Flu. West Nile Virus. Zika. Ebola. All named for places. Before the media's fake outrage, even CNN called it 'Chinese Coronavirus,' the White House tweeted. "Those trying to divide us must stop rooting for America to fail and give Americans real info they need to get through the crisis."

Trump also said Wednesday that Chinese government officials originally "tried to say at one point - maybe they stopped saying now - that it was caused by American soldiers." The New York Times said Friday that a baseless conspiracy theory is circulating in China that U.S. soldiers who visited Wuhan last fall may have sparked the outbreak.

"That can't happen. It's not going to happen. Not as long as I'm president," Trump said of the theory.

"It comes from China," the president repeated about the virus.

Asked about Trump's use of the term, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of World Health Organization's emergencies program, said: "Viruses no know borders and they don't care about your ethnicity, the color of your skin or how much money you have in the bank."

"So it's really important we be careful in the language we use lest it lead to the profiling of individuals associated with the virus," Ryan said.

On Tuesday, a day before the press conference, CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, who was born in China, tweeted that, "This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the 'Kung-Flu' to my face."

"Makes me wonder what they're calling it behind my back," Jiang added.

The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, said last week he agreed with Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., who asked him if it was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate to call this the Chinese coronavirus."

China has strongly objected to the use of the term "Chinese virus," calling it "a despicable practice."

Trump has repeatedly called coronavirus the "Chinese virus" on Twitter, including in a tweet announcing his press conference Wednesday.

In another tweet Wednesday, Trump wrote, "I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the "borders" from China - against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!"

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called coronavirus the "Wuhan virus" during recent public appearances.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang criticized Pompeo by name and other unnamed U.S. politicians for using such terms last week.

"We condemn the despicable practice of individual U.S. politicians eagerly stigmatizing China and Wuhan by association with the novel coronavirus, disrespecting science and WHO," Geng said at a press briefing.

"The international society has a fair judgment, and Pompeo's attempts of slandering China's efforts in combating the epidemic is doomed to fail."

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, blasted Trump last week for using the term when the president tied it to his call for a border wall with Mexico.

"A wall won't stop a virus. Racism won't stop a virus. Do your job," Biden tweeted.

Despite his current criticism of China, Trump said in January he believed that Chinese President Xi Jinping and health officials in that country would tell authorities around the world everything they needed to know about the virus.

Losses on U.S. stock market indexes accelerated as Trump spoke at the press conference. The New York Stock Exchange at one point halted trading as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to a level below to what it was when Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.

Later in the press conference, Trump was asked if he believes that China has inflicted the coronavirus on the United States.

"No, I don't believe they're inflicting," he said.

But, Trump added, "I think they could have given us a lot earlier notice" about the outbreak of the virus in the city of Wuhan.

Trump announced earlier Wednesday that he and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had agreed to temporarily close their nations' joint border, the longest in the world, to nonessential traffic in a bid to slow the spread of the pandemic.

As of Wednesday, there have been more than 210,000 cases worldwide of coronavirus, with more than 8,000 deaths. Cases in China topped 81,000. The United States has had nearly 6,500 reported cases and at least 114 deaths.

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Trump defends calling coronavirus 'Chinese virus' - 'it's not racist at all'

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his habit of calling coronavirus the "Chinese virus." "It's not racist at all," Trump said at a White House press conference to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. "No, not at all."

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However, for most kids, the idea that online teaching is a less-than-ideal but workable substitute is a fiction. Exercises presented on a screen, little buttons to push, "writing" on a keyboard rather than by hand at an early age, no one directing students from one activity to another in person, no questions addressed directly by a living person-all of this engages most young people too little to instruct them in any real way. Online teaching as a norm is a crisis.

Or at least, a crisis in inculcating the formal level of language, which is considered one of school's main functions. At home one learns to talk; at school one learns to speak, especially those from less educated homes. At home one writes stuff down here and there; at school one learns to compose the kind of text that presents you to the world as a serious person. Humans are genetically programmed to talk, and ordinary talk is complex and nuanced indeed. Yet modern civilization exerts a requirement that citizens master a secondary layer of communication, the formal one.

And this level is only partly about big words and where to put a comma. In forcing kids not only to write for real but to read text, school is also where one acquires familiarity with the extended argument, making a case, and even seeing the coherence in views you find unfamiliar. The goopy little exercises making kids write about what they did last summer and answer questions about pollination can seem trivial-until you imagine a kid growing up not doing such things, and only talking. It's a different way of being in the world-and an America in which online learning becomes a regular fate for all of America's kids is going to leave those kids in essentially that kind of world.

If we are seeing the beginning of what will be referred to in 10 or 15 years as a "corona generation" of kids hobbled by months-long stretches of online school, then I take the risk of predicting that-along with pedants angry that people aren't calling it a "COVID generation"-we will see the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores go down. It will first become evident with the round of fourth graders tested next year. That online school is only, for example, half of the school year will still have palpable effects: Students from less-bookish homes have long been known to exhibit a "summer slide" in what they retain from June when they get back to school in the fall. Today's corona kids-COVID kids, sorry-will already experience a double summer slide. At best, the hiatus will be half a year.

This will leave their abilities in the marvels of casual speech unaffected. However, it will put a major dent in their capacities in the artifice of formal expression. Already we have seen a transition from an era of long emails as common coin in the 1990s to brief texts as the norm starting in about 2005, such that even many people who were comfortable with long emails then today prefer the brevity of texts, while people under about 25 often find not just email but Facebook too wordy. The terseness of texting and Instagram rules now: As always, formal language is a stunt, in its way, not a natural condition, and best learned starting young. When society does not cultivate formal language as ordinary, normal humans only rarely seek it out voluntarily. We are wired to just talk, and with texting technology, to write as much like we talk as we can.

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increasing oralization of american language use

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The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently

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However, for most kids, the idea that online teaching is a less-than-ideal but workable substitute is a fiction. Exercises presented on a screen, little buttons to push, "writing" on a keyboard rather than by hand at an early age, no one directing students from one activity to another in person, no questions addressed directly by a living person-all of this engages most young people too little to instruct them in any real way.

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Throughout history, challenging circumstances have given rise to new ways of expressing those challenges. George Eliot, the 19th Century writer who was famously frustrated by rigid gender and lifestyle norms, is credited with the first recorded use of the word 'frustrating'. More recently, Brexit led to a flowering of new words, including the inevitable 'Bremain' and 'Bregret', and a repurposing of existing words, such as 'backstop'.

While Brexit may be the closest parallel, the speed of the linguistic change we're seeing with Covid-19 is unprecedented, says Robert Lawson, a sociolinguist at Birmingham City University. Lawson attributes this to multiple factors: the dizzying pace at which the virus has spread, its dominance in the media and global interconnectivity at a time when social media and remote contact are so important.

Many of the newly popular terms relate to the socially distanced nature of human contact these days, such as 'virtual happy hour', 'covideo party' and 'quarantine and chill'. Many use 'corona' as a prefix, whether Polish speakers convert 'coronavirus' into a verb or English speakers wonder how 'coronababies' (the children born or conceived during the pandemic) will fare. And, of course, there are abbreviations, like the ubiquitous 'WFH' and the life-saving 'PPE'.
Old words in a new light
Like everyone else, lexicologists are scrambling to keep up with the changes the pandemic has wrought. According to Fiona McPherson, the senior editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), back in December 'coronavirus' appeared only 0.03 times per million tokens (tokens are the smallest units of language collected and tracked in the OED corpus). The term 'Covid-19' was only coined in February, when the WHO announced the official name of the virus. But in April, the figures for both 'Covid-19' and 'coronavirus' had skyrocketed to about 1,750 per million tokens (suggesting that the two terms are now being used at roughly the same frequency).

Innovative signs: In the UK, 'covidiots' is being used to described those ignoring social distancing rules

All of the terms added to the OED in April, in an unscheduled update, were related to the pandemic in some way, including 'infodemic' and 'elbow bump'. But McPherson notes that the only actual new word added to the dictionary is 'Covid-19'. The others are pre-existing terms that have gained new resonance at a time when many people are subject to a 'stay-at-home order' (US), 'movement control order' (Malaysia) or 'enhanced community quarantine' (Philippines).

"Although a lot of the words we're using just now and a lot of the terminology is actually older, a lot of it seems fairly new. 'Coronavirus' itself goes back to the 1960s," she points out.

What McPherson calls the "nuancing of already existing words" can in some cases be subtly harmful. War metaphors invoking 'battles' and 'front-lines' are being widely applied to the pandemic, yet thinking only in terms of a wartime emergency can detract from longer-term structural changes needed. This has given rise to the project #ReframeCovid, in which linguists collect crowdsourced examples of alternatives to war language.

Inés Olza, a linguist at the University of Navarra in Spain, says she started the project spontaneously on Twitter. She understands the temptation to invoke war metaphors, especially at the start of the pandemic when they were necessary to build unity and mobilise swiftly. But "a sustained use of that metaphor and abuse of it, and the lack of alternative frames, might generate anxiety and might distort things about the pandemic", she believes.

As well, terms such as 'natural disaster' and 'perfect storm' can create the impression that the pandemic was inevitable and unavoidable, neglecting the political, economic and environmental contexts that make certain people more exposed. Some healthcare workers have expressed their frustration at being called 'heroes', rather than seen as complex, frightened individuals doing a job, who need protective equipment and policy rather than relying on their own sacrifices.

In some cases the language being used isn't appreciated: this US healthcare worker is protesting against a lack of PPE

"Speakers are free to use the metaphors they want," Olza emphasises. "We are not censors." But she and some of her fellow linguists believe that it's useful to reflect on language and to have alternative framings for discussing the pandemic - beyond militaristic language that can obscure the roles of individuals and communities, and toward expressions that communicate collective care and individual responsibility. She says that Germans have been especially good at finding non-war terms. German's compounding of terms, for instance, has allowed for one-off words like 'Öffnungsdiskussionsorgien' ('orgies of discussion') to describe the seemingly endless policy debates over reopening.
Why humour helps
Overall, there's a wealth of linguistic creativity that hasn't yet entered the dictionary, but reflects the role of novel language as a coping mechanism. These innovative usages, Lawson says, "allow us to name whatever it is that's going on in the world. And once you can name the practices, the events, the social conditions around a particular event, it just gives people a shared vocabulary that they can all use as a bit of a shorthand. I think ultimately if you can name it, you can talk about it; and if you can talk about it, then it can help people cope and get a handle on really difficult situations".

Writer Karen Russell has found the newly ubiquitous term 'flatten the curve' to be reassuring - a reminder of the importance of both individual and collective action, which "alchemizes fear into action". And both the practice and the terminology of 'caremongering', used for instance in Canadian and Indian English, allow for an alternative to scaremongering.

Beyond earnest words like these, a kind of slightly anxious humour is central to many of the 'coronacoinages'. The German 'coronaspeck', like the English 'Covid 19', playfully refers to stress eating amid stay-at-home orders. The Spanish 'covidiota' and 'coronaburro' (a play on 'burro', the word for donkey) poke fun at the people disregarding public health advice. 'Doomscrolling' describes the hypnotic state of endlessly reading grim internet news. Lawson's favourite, 'Blursday', captures the weakening sense of time when so many days bleed into each other.

Australian English, no stranger to light-hearted abbreviations, has produced 'quaz' for 'quarantine' and 'sanny' for 'sanitiser'. Queer and black communities, so often a wellspring of linguistic innovation, have given rise to 'Miss Rona' as a slang term for the virus. And for the unsayable, there are always emojis. The folded hands emoji, the medical mask emoji, and the microbe emoji (yes, that exists) have all become more popular during the pandemic.

Some of these emojis and terms might seem flippant, but "I don't think that by having a little bit of light in the dark, people are making light of the situation", says McPherson. Lawson agrees: "If you can laugh at them, it makes things more manageable almost, and just helps with people's psychological health more than anything else."

Linguists believe that many of the terms currently in vogue won't endure. The ones with a stronger chance of sticking around post-pandemic are those that describe lasting behavioural changes, such as 'zoombombing', which is influenced by 'photobombing' and describes the practice of invading someone else's video call. McPherson reckons that 'zoombombing' could become a generic term (like 'hoovering' up a mess) even if the company Zoom loses its market dominance.

Ingenuity with vocabulary can also communicate that the current hardships, like many of the coronacoinages, won't last forever. Olza has taken to referring to the tasks on her 'corona-agenda', which can be a subtle way of asking for people's patience with her temporarily disrupted schedule. Eventually "I will get my usual agenda back," she says hopefully.

Until then, bring on the quarantinis.

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Why we've created new language for coronavirus

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From 'covidiots' to 'quarantine and chill', the pandemic has led to many terms that help people laugh and commiserate.

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How coronavirus is changing our language

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How coronavirus is changing our language

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People love creating words - in times of crisis it's a "sick" (in the good sense) way of pulling through.

From childhood, our "linguistic life has been one willingly given over to language play" (in the words of David Crystal). In fact, scientists have recently found learning new words can stimulate exactly those same pleasure circuits in our brain as sex, gambling, drugs and eating (the pleasure-associated region called the ventral striatum).

Read more: The shelf-life of slang - what will happen to those 'democracy sausages'?

We're leximaniacs at heart and, while the behaviour can occasionally seem dark, we can learn a thing or two by reflecting on those playful coinages that get us through "dicky" times.

Tom, Dick and Miley: in the 'grippe' of language play

In the past, hard times birthed playful rhymes. The 1930s Depression gave us playful reduplications based on Australian landmarks and towns - "ain't no work in Bourke"; "everything's wrong at Wollongong"; "things are crook at Tallarook".

Wherever we're facing the possibility of being "dicky" or "Tom (and) Dick" (rhyming slang for "sick"), we take comfort in language play. It's one thing to feel "crook", but it's another thing again to feel as "crook as Rookwood" (a cemetery in Sydney) or to have a "wog" (synonymous with "bug", likely from "pollywog", and unrelated to the ethnic slur "wog").

Remedies may be found in language's abilities to translate sores into plasters, to paraphrase William Gouge's 1631 sermon on the plague. New slang enables us to face our fears head-on - just as when the Parisians began calling a late-18th century influenza " la grippe " to reflect the "seizing" effect it had on people. The word was subsequently taken up in British and American English.

In these times of COVID-19, there are the usual suspects: shortenings like "sanny" (hand sanitizer) and "iso" (isolation), abbreviations like BCV (before corona virus) and WFH (working from home), also compounds "corona moaner" (the whingers) and "zoombombing" (the intrusion into a video conference).

Plenty of nouns have been "verbed" too - the toilet paper/pasta/tinned tomatoes have been "magpied". Even rhyming slang has made a bit of a comeback with Miley Cyrus lending her name to the virus (already end-clipped to "the Miley"). Some combine more than one process - "the isodesk" (or is that "the isobar") is where many of us are currently spending our days.

Slanguage in the coronaverse: what's new?

What is interesting about COVID-lingo is the large number of creations that are blended expressions formed by combining two existing words. The new portmanteau then incorporates meaningful characteristics from both. Newly spawned "coronials" (corona + millennials) has the predicted baby boom in late 2020 already covered.

"Blursday" has been around since at least 2007 but originally described the day spent hung over - it's now been pressed into service because no one knows what day of the week it is anymore. The official disease name itself, "COVID", is somewhere between a blend and an acronym because it takes in vowels to make the abbreviation pronounceable (CO from corona, VI from virus and D from disease).

True, we've been doing this sort of thing for centuries - "flush" (flash + gush) dates from the 1500s. But it's never been a terribly significant method of coinage. John Algeo's study of neologisms over a 50-year period (1941-91) showed blends counting for only 5% of the new words. Tony Thorne's impressive collection of over 100 COVID-related terms has around 34% blends, and the figure increases to more than 40% if we consider only slang.

Not only have blends become much more common, the nature of the mixing process has changed too. Rather than combining splinters of words, as in "coronials", most of these corona-inspired mixes combine full words merged with parts of others. The "quarantini" keeps the word "quarantine" intact and follows it with just a hint of "martini" (and for that extra boost to the immune system you can rim the glass with vitamin C powder). Many of these have bubbled up over the past few weeks - "lexit" or "covexit" (the strategies around exiting lockdown and economic hardship), "coronacation" (working from home) and so on.

Humour: from the gallows to quarantimes

Humour emerges as a prevailing feature of these blends, even more so when the overlap is total. In "covidiot" (the one who ignores public health advice and probably hoards toilet paper), both "covid" and "idiot" remain intact. There's been a flourishing of these types of blend - "covideo party", "coronapocalypse", "covidivorce" to name just a few.

Clearly, there is a fair bit of dark comedy in the jokes and memes that abound on the internet, and in many of these coinages too - compounds like "coronacoma" (for the period of shutdown, or that deliciously long quarantine sleep) and "boomer remover" (used by younger generations for the devastation of the baby boomer demographic).

Read more: Oi! We're not lazy yarners, so let's kill the cringe and love our Aussie accent(s)

Callous, heartless, yes. But humour is often used as a means of coming to terms with the less happy aspects of our existence. People use the levity as a way of disarming anxiety and discomfort by downgrading what it is they cannot cope with.

Certainly, gallows humour has always featured large in hospital slang (diagnoses like GOK "God only knows" and PFO "pissed and fell over"). For those who have to deal with dying and death every day, it is perhaps the only way to stay sane. COVID challenges us all to confront the biological limits of our own bodies - and these days humour provides the much-needed societal safety valve.

So what will come of these creations? The vast majority will fall victim to "verbicide", as slang expressions always do.

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'Iso', 'boomer remover' and 'quarantini': how coronavirus is changing our language

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People love creating words - in times of crisis it's a "sick" (in the good sense) way of pulling through. From childhood, our "linguistic life has been one willingly given over to language play" (in the words of David Crystal).

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笔记本、录音笔、摄像机、话筒......是他们的"武器"；一个个鲜活的故事、一张张动人的图片、一段段震撼的画面......是他们的作品；他们不畏风险、无私奉献，顽强拼搏、忘我工作。

新冠肺炎疫情发生以来，南京市广大新闻工作者不畏艰险、深入一线，及时报道各级党委政府防控疫情的有力举措和疫情信息并普及防治知识，充分反映医疗卫生工作者的不懈努力，全面展示社会各界齐心协力战胜疫情的最新进展，为疫情防控做出了重要贡献。

南京报业传媒集团、南京广电集团派出新闻报道组在武汉采访，从左到右分别是夏庆涛、束双全、杨洋、刘晓。来源：直播南京

近日，南京市委宣传部决定，授予包括南京报业传媒集团融媒体采访中心时政新闻部副主任（主持工作）刘晓、政务中心城北片区部副主任查金忠、采访中心视觉新闻部记者董家训等在内的8名同志南京"最美防疫新闻人"荣誉称号。
一、闻令而动，冲在防疫报道最前线
南京报业传媒集团、南京广电集团派出记者查金忠（右一）、董家训（左一）、周洪亮（右二）、周心诚（左二）进入南京市公共卫生医疗中心隔离病区采访。资料图片

"到一线去，是自然而然，更是职业使然。父母妻儿已安顿好，我定全力以赴！"

"越靠近现场，才越接近真实！我报名！"

"既然选择了记者这个职业，就要去现场！"

重要时刻，请缨前线。众多新闻工作者投身防疫战斗，为白衣天使及其他抗疫人员的逆行而逆行。

2月15日，得知南京市将向武汉派出新闻报道组，曾先后11次前往北京报道全国两会的刘晓主动请战，表示自己采访经验丰富，能够完成任务，"作为共产党员、党报记者，疫情面前应该冲在一线。"

回忆起出发前一晚，刘晓告诉紫君，当晚归家，迎接他的不是依依不舍的眼神，而是妻子准备的防护用品、一桌饯行的家宴以及女儿的熊抱："爸爸，我们班里两位同学的家长都去武汉支援啦！听说明天你也要去了，那我也是英雄的女儿啦！"

许是女儿年幼，还未察觉到此番父亲出征的危险性，亦或是她为父亲加油打气、祈祷平安的特殊方式。"和在一线支援疫情防控、患者救治的医务工作者相比，女儿口中'英雄'的称呼实在是谬赞了。"刘晓说，赶赴新闻的最前线，记录逆行英雄最美的瞬间、最动人的故事，是一名新闻人的坚守，和医务工作者一样使命在肩，"我们为逆行者而逆行。"

2月17日，刘晓"出征武汉"，并在当天将随车携带的480件防护服、一批医用口罩等12箱医疗防护物资送到前方医护人员的手中。

南京报业传媒集团融媒体采访中心视觉新闻部记者董家训，是8名"最美防疫新闻人"中唯一的"95后"，虽然年纪轻，但是行动力却丝毫不输前辈们。

准备进入隔离病区的董家训。资料图片

接到单位决定选派记者奔赴南京市公共卫生医疗中心隔离病区采访的"召集令"后，董家训毫不犹豫报了名。"我和女朋友都是新闻从业者，她一个小姑娘成天念叨着觉得上一线采访的前辈们都特别伟大，我也不能输呀！"

董家训告诉紫君，2003年非典暴发时，他还在上小学；17年后的今天，他已然成为一名青年，希望用自己的取景框让大家"看南京、看中国、看世界"。

杨洋在武汉体育中心方舱医院采访率队在此支援的南京市第二医院副院长杨永峰。来源：直播南京

"我是医疗条口记者，奔赴防疫一线，采访报道医护人员是我的责任和使命！派我去吧！我能吃苦，也有信心完成好报道任务！"南京广电集团融媒体新闻中心新闻采集部副主管杨洋上一线采访的信念非常坚定。她是妻子、是女儿、是母亲，她的家庭需要她；但她更清楚，她也是记者，传播理性和坚强的声音更需要她。作为南京前方报道组中唯一一名女同志，武汉报道全程，杨洋将巾帼不让须眉这句话演绎得淋漓尽致。

夏庆涛。来源：直播南京

"若有战，召必回！"南京广电集团融媒体新闻中心新闻采集部记者夏庆涛、驾驶员束双全都是退役军人，他们始终将这句话铭记心间。在摄像记者团队中，夏庆涛虽然资深，但对待工作、对待同事从不以"老资格"自居，总是勤勤恳恳，保质保量干好工作，遇有急难险重任务，多次主动顶上。
二、牢记嘱托，在一线践行"四力"
在武汉市江夏区中医院、武汉市第一医院采访时遇到医护人员转运重症患者，为了拍摄画面，他的采访位置距离患者仅有十米左右，以至于医护人员连连叮嘱"不能再靠近了"；

刘晓探访武汉同济医院光谷院区。资料图片

在武汉同济医院光谷院区、武汉体育中心方舱医院等地，迎来患者出院，为了拍摄录制现场音视频，他与刚刚出院尚需隔离观察的病患近距离面对面交流；

穿上隔离服、戴上护目镜，近距离接触发热病人，记录医护人员为患者抽血、取样检测、治疗的真实工作状态......

在隔离病区进行采访的董家训。资料图片

病毒面前，新闻工作者不畏艰险、奋勇向前，生动讲述防疫抗疫一线的感人事迹。

2月18日，到达武汉的第二天，刘晓进入武汉同济医院光谷院区两个重症病区采访；

2月19日，到达武汉的第三天，刘晓在武汉江夏区第一人民医院，直击武汉一家三口出院时刻；

2月20日，到达武汉的第四天，凌晨3:45，江城武汉正在沉睡，刘晓采访南京鼓楼医院的早班护士们穿过武汉长江二桥，去往5公里以外的武汉市第一医院......

在武汉的一个多月里，刘晓的行动轨迹遍布武汉三镇，几家定点收治的三甲医院、方舱医院、中医院成了他每天的"打卡点"。

方舱医院的患者出院时，医护人员比患者还要开心，排着队欢送康复者；理发店的高级发型师自愿报名做志愿者，定期上门帮医护人员理发......

刘晓在金银潭医院采访。资料图片

刘晓说，这些温暖的画面都是他在前往武汉前没有想到的，"深入一线，直击现场，才有真实见闻。"刘晓说，通过一线的真实报道，可以稳人心、增信心、暖民心，这是新闻报道工作使命所在，是新闻人可以也必须为战胜疫情所做的贡献。

杨洋在采访援鄂医疗队南京一队领队、南京鼓楼医院副院长于成功时，于成功向她展示其手机中"珍藏"的"暖心"照片，一张"护士为患阿尔茨海默症的老年患者按摩颈背"的照片引起了杨洋的注意。照片中老年患者的手上还被画上了四个"戒指"和一块"名表"，杨洋以其职业敏感，立刻联系补充采访。

"老爷爷时常夜里不睡觉，吵着要回家。南京的医护们就变着法儿哄老人开心，陪伴、按摩、画手表、送包包，把任性的'老小孩'当成自己的亲人去对待，令人动容。"杨洋说，报道的穿透力来源于记者的脚力、眼力、脑力、笔力，唯有有细节、有深度、有感染力，才能把电视新闻的报道优势和魅力发挥得淋漓尽致。

"我从没发现自己竟然如此擅长煽情，聊着聊着，面前的采访对象就动了情、掉眼泪。"南京报业传媒集团融媒体政务中心城北片区部副主任查金忠告诉记者，因为长期在隔离病区工作，背负压力、远离家人，医护们都变得很感性。

在进入南京市公共卫生医疗中心隔离病区采访，与医护人员同吃同住的5天里，他见证了太多温暖的故事和有视觉冲击的画面，对医务工作者的敬佩也频频涌上心头。

汤雅真（右）在隔离病区工作 。南报融媒体记者 董家训 摄

采访隔离病区一位叫汤雅真的小护士时，查金忠了解到，小姑娘2003年因为高烧39度，被怀疑患上非典而隔离，是医护人员不畏生死照护她。她从此立志成为一名优秀的护士。

"当听到小女孩说'当年我是病人，如今我来救人'这句话的时候，我深受感动，心情久久无法平静。"查金忠说，媒体人是抗击疫情的见证者、记录者，同时也是参与者，通过文字、图片、视频、音频等报道形式，让更多读者看到，正是因为有太多人在奋不顾身往前冲，这个世界才会始终温暖，才会岁月静好。"新闻需要情感和温度，除了有铁肩担道义的责任和使命感，也要有对这项事业无限的用心和热爱。"

"如果你拍得不够好，那是因为你离得不够近！"这是南京广电集团融媒体新闻中心专题节目部记者周心诚的座右铭。为了获取更多第一手资料，周心诚坚持进入隔离病区，跟拍一线医务人员。"拍摄前，每次都要提前一小时到达，穿三层隔离衣，不一会儿就出现强烈的闷热感，往往还没开始拍摄，最里面一层的衣服就已经被汗湿了。而且隔离衣完全密封，有时候呼出的气体，在防护面屏上结起雾气，视线很受影响。"这是周心诚和采集部同事周洪亮共同的苦恼。

周心诚说，在一次现场连线中，因为之前已经在隔离病区拍摄了近四小时，整个人体力严重透支，连线结束时，几乎连脱下防护服的力气都没有了。

南京广电集团记者周洪亮。来源：直播南京

在抗击疫情的报道中，南京市8名"最美防疫新闻人"不辞辛苦，连续作战，用一个又一个有思想有温度有品质的精品力作，诠释了什么叫做"四力"。
三、创新报道，融媒体传播防疫"南京声音"
"战胜疫情要讲科学，新闻报道也要讲科学。"刘晓说，时代不同了，大众传播形式、产品、手段、渠道都发生了变化，现代传播新形势下，怎么抓住读者，怎么引导受众，这些需要传播方式的深刻变革。

这次采访中，刘晓感触最深的是文字稿件早已不是报道的全部，所以他特别注意运用融媒体思维积极创新报道形式，把报、网、端融合的优势发挥出来，按照移动优先的要求，稿件采访后及时和后方团队沟通，第一时间以Vlog、短视频等形式在全网推送。

南京市第一医院呼吸内科主任谷伟在武汉同济医院光谷院区接受刘晓采访。通讯员 王煜 摄

在武汉的一个多月，刘晓和被采访单位的医生、护士成为朋友，在"同一战壕"，同吃同住，倾听他们的心声，报道他们的工作、感受他们的状态。笔记本不方便消杀，刘晓就改用录音笔；熬夜整理资料、撰稿、剪视频成为几名一线报道记者的日常。

在一线采访期间，刘晓先后采写了鼓楼医院吴超、虞文魁，市第一医院谷伟等10多位医护人员代表，制作了19期视频报道，共采写新闻消息稿件、视频音频报道、深度人物报道、救治综述稿件约60篇。

查金忠和董家训准备进入位于汤山的南京市公共卫生医疗中心隔离病区。资料图片

查金忠、董家训两人先后三次进入"小汤山"，对隔离病区的"最高指挥官"殷国平以及成骢、叶伟、池云、胡志亮、陈亚玲等一直坚守的优秀医护人员进行了深入报道，通过南京报业传媒集团融媒体发表了"殷国平：零距离挑战死神""党旗在隔离病区飘扬""战斗在'疫'线""撑开'重生之门'""大夜班之后的六张面庞"等优秀图文、视频报道。

最美防疫新闻人

（来源：南报融媒体、紫金山观察等）

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他们，为逆行者而逆行---中国文明网

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笔记本、录音笔、摄像机、话筒......是他们的"武器"；一个个鲜活的故事、一张张动人的图片、一段段震撼的画面......是他们的作品；他们不畏风险、无私奉献，顽强拼搏、忘我工作。 ...

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这些医务人员分别来自海南医学院第一附属医院、海南省人民医院、海口市人民医院、三亚市人民医院等省内12家综合医院，平均年龄不到35岁。

身为曾经的医学博士，现在的海南省长、海南省新型冠状病毒感染肺炎疫情防控工作指挥部总指挥，沈晓明省长，代表海南省委、省政府在海口美兰机场，专门为支援武汉医疗队的队员进行了送行，并发表了讲话。

"在我的职业生涯当中，已经记不起我有多少次，在机场送医疗队员。我在上海当医院院长的时候，我在当医科大学校长的时候，我在当上海市副市长的时候，有送去国外的，有送去国内的，有送去抗埃博拉（疫情）的，有送去帮助救援地震海啸的，有送去汶川的，但是这一次有点不一样，不仅仅是因为我的身份变了，而是因为这一次大家去完成任务的时间点不一样，大家要去完成的任务不一样。"

"今天是大年初三，应该是万家团圆的日子，但是不仅仅是你们的家庭需要你们，不仅仅是海南需要你们，全国人民需要你们！因此，作为一名曾经的医务工作者，我认为，确实有这样的义务，要舍小家为大家，而事实上，我们舍小家为大家，并不是从今天开始的，我们一直都是如此。"

海南医学院第二附属医院重症医学科一区的苏爱康，交完班就一刻不停地奔向门诊大厅，因为在那里，她的丈夫叶智超作为海医二附院第一批驰援湖北医疗队的一员，即将出发。

在门诊大厅，苏爱康和叶智超紧紧相拥，两人的眼泪不住往下淌，这一幕，让现场的许多人也不禁落泪。夫妻二人都是重症专业的护士，虽然在一个单位，但也不常见面。苏爱康现在怀着身孕，大女儿还不到两岁，同为医务人员，她支持和理解丈夫自愿支援湖北的决定，但作为妻子，她还是有些担心和忐忑，谁没有自己的小家呢？

这番讲话和苏医生的故事，完美诠释了中国文化中的舍得精神--------舍小家为大家，

但是舍了小家为大家，这不是一句空话，而是实实在在的行动，作为普通的老百姓，非常时期，只能坐在家里，而医护工作者，却要在春节期间，舍掉自己的小家，顾全全国的大家，背上行囊，赶赴战场...............

此情此景，让人不禁想起一句令人唏嘘感慨的话：

哪里有什么岁月静好，都是有人在替你负重前行！

致敬疫情时期的医护人员！致敬伟大的逆行者！致敬舍小家为大家的中国舍得精神！中国加油！

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致敬逆行者！致敬舍得精神！舍小家为大家，这是中国的舍得精神！

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这些医务人员分别来自海南医学院第一附属医院、海南省人民医院、海口市人民医院、三亚市人民医院等省内12家综合医院，平均年龄不到35岁。 身为曾经的医学博士，现在的海南省长、海南省新型冠状病毒感染肺炎疫情防控工作指挥部总指挥，沈晓明省长，代表海南省委、省政府在海口美兰机场，专门为支援武汉医疗队的队员进行了送行，并发表了讲话。 ...

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逆行者精神的深刻内涵

逆行者精神是逆行者在公共突发事件中表现出来的英雄气概和强者风范，是中华民族百折不挠、自强不息民族精神的映照。逆行者精神具有如下深刻内涵：

挺身而出、舍生取义的大无畏精神。抗疫逆行者在祖国和人民需要的时候，挺身而出、舍生取义。他们中有冲在一线、义无反顾的医务人员，有驻点排查、日夜坚守的人民警察，有送药送菜、真情服务的社区工作者和志愿者，有争分夺秒修建医院的建筑工人......关键时刻站得出来、危急关头豁得出去，充分体现了逆行者"越是艰险越向前"的大无畏革命精神。

忠诚履职、舍我其谁的担当精神。医务人员穿上"战袍"，用医者仁心、大医精诚救死扶伤。广大新闻工作者不畏艰险，深入疫情一线，记录特殊历史，讲好抗疫故事，用旗帜引领方向，用号角振奋精神，用科学消弭焦虑，用事实击退流言。科研人员拿出科研攻关"加速度"，夜以继日研发疫苗、筛选药物......大事难事看担当，危急时刻显作为。抗疫逆行者忠诚履职，以舍我其谁的担当，把职责使命记于心、践于行。

顾全大局、舍小家为大家的奉献精神。千万人口的武汉封城，湖北人民以壮士断腕般的自我牺牲换得全国大局的稳定，充分体现了"封住一城，守住一国"的奉献精神。广大社区工作者投身疫情防控一线，尽心尽力为社区居民提供生活便利，打通服务群众的"最后一公里"。广大医务人员无私奉献、日夜奋战，用心用情守护百姓安康。奉献是逆行者的符号，成为抗疫逆行者的代名词。

守望相助、大爱无疆的大爱精神。病毒无情，人间有爱；湖北有难，全国支援。19省市对口支援湖北各市，从医疗支援到生活支援，从物质支援到精神支援，举国上下守望相助，凸显全国一盘棋的要义所在。在做好自身疫情防控的同时，我国向疫情严重的国家派出医疗队、力所能及提供防控物资。这种守望相助、同舟共济的行动，诠释了"一方有难、八方支援"的大爱精神。

逆行者精神的时代价值

逆行者精神，具有凝聚价值、激励价值、导向价值和教育价值，起到凝聚人心、增强信心、榜样感召、价值导向、激发正气、传递能量、教育认同和诠释理念等作用。这种精神不仅彰显了负责任的大国勇气、形象和担当，也给我们决胜全面建成小康社会、决战脱贫攻坚提供了强大精神力量。

逆行者精神汇聚起万众一心的磅礴力量。疫情发生以来，"我参加过抗震救灾，让我去""我是党员，我先上"，抗疫逆行者主动请战，到疫情最严重的地方去。有的不幸被感染，治愈后再次选择"披挂上阵"......一个个逆行的身影，不仅传达着对生命的敬畏，而且筑起守护健康安全的"铜墙铁壁"。他们用行动把党和政府的温暖传递给群众，凝聚了全社会的家国情怀和全体中国人的公民意识，凝聚起万众一心的磅礴力量。

逆行者精神增强共克时艰的信心和决心。面对来势汹汹的疫情，抗疫逆行者选择逆行，在他们的精神世界里，都铆足一股劲，始终偾张着敢于斗争、敢于胜利的精气神。普通人的挺身而出，白衣天使的无畏坚守，用血肉之躯筑成了钢铁长城，以最美逆行奏响了生命之歌。他们身上散发着一种让人从灵魂深处感到震撼和温暖的力量，向我们传递了"不破楼兰终不还"的决心和"直挂云帆济沧海"的信心。

逆行者精神传递众志成城的强大正能量。抗疫逆行者一张张不辞辛劳的坚毅笑脸，一句句加油必胜的鼓励话语，一个个冲锋陷阵的动人故事，通过方寸屏幕给社会传播积极乐观的正能量。抗疫逆行者给我们上了一堂爱国、忠诚、仁爱、担当、奉献、拼搏的"家国情怀课"，凝聚起了众志成城的强大正能量。

逆行者精神诠释休戚与共的命运共同体理念。面对疫情，没有旁观者，更没有局外人。打赢这场没有硝烟的战争必须凝聚共识，群策群力，群防群治。习近平总书记强调："各国越来越成为你中有我、我中有你的命运共同体。"面对全球疫情暴发，中国向一些疫情严重的国家伸出了援助之手，抗疫逆行者再出征。他们用实际行动诠释了中国特有的样子，诠释了休戚与共的命运共同体理念。

（作者单位：广西大学马克思主义理论研究与建设工程基地）

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逆行者精神的深刻内涵与时代价值

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逆行者精神的深刻内涵 逆行者精神是逆行者在公共突发事件中表现出来的英雄气概和强者风范，是中华民族百折不挠、自强不息民族精神的映照。逆行者精神具有如下深刻内涵： ...

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After New Coronavirus Outbreaks, China Imposes Wuhan-Style Lockdown

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After New Coronavirus Outbreaks, China Imposes Wuhan-Style Lockdown

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After New Coronavirus Outbreaks, China Imposes Wuhan-Style Lockdown

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Infections in the northeast have led officials to sequester hundreds of thousands at home. "China doesn't want to take any chances," one expert said.

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Chinese authorities have sealed off the north-eastern city of Shulan, home to about 700,000 people, after an outbreak of coronavirus, imposing measures similar to those used in Wuhan.

All villages and residential compounds in the city were closed off, and only one person from each household allowed out for two hours every second day for essentials.

The development came as Beijing signalled it could ease some border restrictions as it prepares for the start on Thursday of its signature political event, the Communist party's delayed annual congress, also known as the "two sessions".

In Shulan, residential compounds were restricted to just one entry and exit for emergency vehicles, and banned non-residents and vehicles from entering. If there are confirmed cases in a community residence, no one can enter or leave.

Last week, the city was reclassified as high risk after a cluster of cases emerged connected to a woman with no known history of travel or exposure to the virus. In response, authorities ordered the temporary closure of public places, schools and public transport.

On Monday however these restrictions were increased further, with China Daily referring to the city as "the latest pandemic hotspot in the country". It said hundreds of people were under medical quarantine, and that life might not go back to normal for weeks.

On Tuesday, another nearby city introduced protective measures.

Jilin province authorities said that due to the "severe circumstances" of the epidemic in the areas surrounding the city of Jiaohe, public transport inside the city and between the city and neighbouring counties would be stopped until further notice.

The north-east of the country, which borders Russia and North Korea, has emerged as an area of serious concern, as cases appear to have been brought in from across the border, and then begun to spread locally.

At least 34 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Jilin province in the past fortnight.

Despite the highest level of lockdowns prompted by just a few dozen cases, Chinese media have said the country can handle more imported cases and will likely begin opening up again.

Chinese media has reported the country is likely to ease its border controls after the two sessions meeting, which begins Thursday.

Relaxed entry rules could apply to Chinese students overseas who want to return home after graduating, and business travellers, but not large numbers of tourists yet, according to academics quoted by the Global Times.

Zhou Zijun, a public health expert at Peking university, told the paper China "can now properly handle a small level of imported cases".

Discussions were reportedly beginning between countries including China, Japan and South Korea, about opening channels for business travel, with strict testing requirements.

On Monday China reported six new cases of Covid-19, of which three were local transmissions. Two were in Jilin province, and one in Hubei. The national health commission also reported 17 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases.

Chinese authorities are particularly sensitive to the possibility of further outbreaks, just days out from its annual "two sessions", which had been postponed from March because of the coronavirus. While there are extra measures in place to ensure the meeting of party delegates goes ahead safely, it is a sign that Beijing believes it is beginning to go back to normal.

At the end of April tens of millions of people travelled for the first time in months over a five-day national holiday, and quarantine requirements on people arriving in Beijing were lifted.

Housing officials in charge of residences have been warned they will be removed from their roles if there are new outbreaks, prompting speculation this could backfire and lead to local cover-ups. Some officials in Wuhan - where another small outbreak recently prompted an ambitious plan to test all 11 million residents - and Jilin province have already been removed from their posts, Chinese media has reported.
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China puts city of Shulan under Wuhan-style lockdown after fresh Covid-19 cases

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Chinese authorities have sealed off the north-eastern city of Shulan, home to about 700,000 people, after an outbreak of coronavirus, imposing measures similar to those used in Wuhan. All villages and residential compounds in the city were closed off, and only one person from each household allowed out for two hours every second day for essentials.

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The San Antonio City Council unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Mayor Ron Nirenberg condemning hate speech toward Asian, Pacific Islander, and Jewish communities.

"COVID-19 is a public health issue, not a racial, religious or ethnic one, and the deliberate use of terms such as 'Chinese virus' or 'Kung Fu virus' to describe COVID-19 only encourages hate crimes and incidents against Asians and further spreads misinformation at a time when communities should be working together to get through this crisis," reads the resolution.

At the city council meeting on Thursday when the resolution was introduced, only one member of the public commented on it.

Jack Finger, a local conservative activist who regularly attends city council meetings criticized the resolution for condemning the term "Chinese virus" when the virus originated in China.

"Would I be committing a hate crime if I said that the Asian flu came from Asia? Or that the West Nile virus came from the West Nile area? Would I be discriminating against those folks? Apparently through this resolution you're saying I would, and you'd want to throw me in jail for that," said Finger.

He said that in an attempt to "mitigate [his] sentence" he'd offer them a "plea bargain," and displayed a city document requesting citizens to report violations of San Antonio's "Stay Home, Work Safe Order."

Finger then proceeded to pull out a set of binoculars and state that he had seen city council members Roberto Treviño and Manny Pelàez not wearing their facemasks.

He also pulled out a measuring tape, presumably to indicate that the council members had not been maintaining proper social distancing, but his microphone was apparently muted.

"At a time of crisis," said Nirenberg, "this city has always shown that we stand united, we stand together. And there's not room for discrimination or hate when we see it. So we shout it out collectively that San Antonians as a community will not tolerate it."

Pelàez said that the resolution is "the right thing to do at the right time. We have a very long history in the United States, and a tradition sadly, of xenophobia. It's in our DNA. It's alive and well, and I believe that it's more dangerous and more contagious than a virus."

"Thankfully however, there is a vaccine," continued Pelàez. "That vaccine is light. That vaccine is drawing moral lines in the sand and saying 'we will not tolerate this.'"

Pelàez said that since the coronavirus has spread to the United States, there has been an increase in attacks against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders as well as hateful conspiracy theories that the Jewish community is spreading the disease and profiting from it.

"Despite the bad dinner theater that we just had to sit through," said Pelàez, referring to Finger's comments, "really what we're talking about is defending people's rights to exist in the United States without harassment and indignity."

Councilman Clayton Perry said that he was hesitant at first glance if the resolution was needed, but said that he would be supporting it after reaching out leaders in the Asian community who asked for his support because there "were a couple of incidents" in San Antonio.

Anecdotal from a local media outlet say that there has been an increase in racist remarks targeted toward Asians, including a Chinese-American restaurant owner who was "verbally assaulted with coronavirus-related slurs before being physically attacked toward the end of February."

A similar resolution has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was co-sponsored by eight of the 13 Democrats in the Texas delegation.

The House resolution cites a stabbing that took place at a Sam's Club in Midland, Texas, where a man to stab to death an Asian-American family, including two young children, because he thought they were "Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus."

An off-duty border patrol agent and a Sam's Club employee stepped in to stop the attack.

This is what selfless service looks like. BP Agent Bernie Ramirez reunites w/ Sam's Club employee Zach Owen days after both intervened during a stabbing incident inside Sam's in Midland, Tx. Owens's hand was cut and he was stabbed in the leg too. #HonorFirst @SamsClub @USBPChief pic.twitter.com/RXSXk735WJ

- Chief Patrol Agent Matthew J. Hudak (@USBPChiefBBT) March 16, 2020

Many Republican leaders, notably President Trump, have continued to call the coronavirus the "Chinese virus" or the "Wuhan virus," maintaining that there is nothing inherently racist in labeling a virus based on its origin.

Moreover, they argue that referring to the origin will help hold China - and the Chinese Communist Party - responsible for their failures in containing the virus and their deception in covering up its severity.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized the council's decision, , "This is NUTS. [The San Antonio] City Council [is] behaving like a lefty college faculty lounge, triggered by Chick-fil-A & the words 'Wuhan virus.' If they want to investigate someone, start with [The New York Times and] CNN who both repeatedly (and rightly) referred to it as 'the Chinese coronavirus.'"

Both the New York Times and referred to the virus as the "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese coronavirus" earlier in the year.
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San Antonio City Council Passes Resolution Condemning Hate Speech, Use of the Term "Chinese Virus"

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The San Antonio City Council unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Mayor Ron Nirenberg condemning hate speech toward Asian, Pacific Islander, and Jewish communities.