U.S. President Trump said he has backed away from calling the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus" because he doesn't want to make "a big deal out of it" anymore.
"I decided we shouldn't make any more of a big deal out of it," the president told Fox News on Tuesday and one day earlier he condemned the harassment of Asian Americans, who have reported being blamed for the spread of the coronavirus.
Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other State Department officials to stop using the term to refer to COVID-19.
"I am obliged to point out that referring to this global pandemic by anything other than its appropriate medical names is unhelpful at best, and at worst risks inflaming stereotypes, fear, and xenophobia in the face of a health crisis," Cardin wrote in a Tuesday letter.
"The identification of disease with national origin, ethnic group, or religion took on a more sinister character as one of a number of rationalizations for displacement, ethnic cleansing, and even genocide," he wrote.
"The tone you and your senior staff set for the men and women of the State Department is crucial; U.S. diplomatic credibility abroad must not be compromised by the irresponsible use of the term," Cardin admonished Pompeo.
He asked the secretary to be "mindful" and use "only the recognized names for COVID-19 and the virus that causes the disease: SARS-CoV-2."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian has also objected to the use of the term on Twitter, calling for "joint efforts instead of fear-mongering" to cope with the virus.
