US President Donald J. Trump’s “Chinese Virus”—racist?—update.

The President of the United States to journalists at the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 1208 EDT.

Is it anything but a useless, racist distraction from any and all actual efforts to protect public health?

I would like to begin by announcing some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus. We’ll be invoking the Defense Production Act, just in case we need it. Ah, in other words, I think you all know what it is, and it can do a lot of good things, if we need it, and we will, uh, we will have it, uh, all, uh, completed, signing it in just a little while right after I’m finished with this conference. I’ll be signing it. It’s prepared to go. So, we will be invoking the Defense Production Act.