Marie Ludwich: Is calling a spade a spade now offensive to card players?

To The Daily Sun,

With regard to Lindsay Weiner and her friends and their OUTRAGE at the I-LSD School Board meeting and what they called racist language: Apparently someone called Covid the China virus. HORRORS! It IS the China Virus because it started in China!

This is in no way a racial slur. Viruses are typically named from the area they originate. 1871- Japanese Encephalitis /1st case in JAPAN. 1896- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever/ near Rocky Mts near Idaho. 1918- Spanish Flu/started in SPAIN. 1928- Ross River Fever/ROSS RIVER of Queensland, Australia. 1940- Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever/ began in OMSK, Russia. 1947- Zika Virus/ ZIKA Valley in central Africa. 1969- Lassa Fever/ LASSA Nigeria. 1970s- Lyme Disease/ believed to start in LYME, CT. 1976- Ebola Virus/ 1st occurred in Democratic Republic of Congo near the EBOLA River. 1994- Hendra Virus/ 1st started in the Brisbane suburb of HENDRA. 2019- Coronavirus ,or China Virus/ began in Wuhan CHINA.

Would you feel better if we called it the WUHAN VIRUS? Look, I am opposed to racism as are most people. But really, IS THERE ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T OFFEND SOMEONE? Your children are going to learn about this virus over the years as the China virus, Covid 19, corona, etc. They will also learn that many viruses are named for the region they originated in. Let's call a spade a spade, or is that offensive to card players?

Marie Ludwick

Center Harbor