Months after holding China responsible for the deadly outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic by calling it ‘China virus’, United States President Donald Trump has once again slammed the Communist country for inflicting the world with the pandemic, terming the disease as “Kung flu”.
Addressing his first election rally on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Donald Trump blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. He has accused Beijing of suppressing the details of the contagion, that has killed over 450,000 people and infected more than 8.5 million people.
Speaking at the rally, the US President said that the COVID-19 is a disease and has more names than any disease in history.
“I can name – Kung flu. I can name 19 different versions of names. Many call it a virus, which it is. Many calls it a flu. What difference. I think we have 19 or 20 versions of the name,” Trump said.
The Trump administration had earlier referred coronavirus as ‘Wuhan virus’ and ‘Chinese virus’ due to its origin. The coronavirus outbreak has affected 2.3 million people in the USA and has killed at least 119,000 Americans.
President Donald Trump has been consistent in his attempts to call out China for its irresponsible conduct as far as the coronavirus pandemic is concerned.
President Trump had earlier said that the government is examining all scientific evidence to determine the origins of Novel coronavirus. He had gone further to state that he had seen information and has ‘high degree of confidence’ that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab
United States’ diplmotic war with China
China has been facing severe criticism from various other countries, more intensely from Washington over the way it handled the pandemic.
Earlier, Trump had triggered a diplomatic war with China by repeatedly referring the Novel Coronavirus as Chinese Virus. Several leaders in the United States have been highly critical of both China and WHO of their handling of the situation, accusing them of hiding vital information and underplaying the crisis at the beginning.
US President Trump had also expressed doubt over the accuracy of Chinese statistics for cases and deaths. He had also said that he has ‘high degree of confidence’ that Coronavirus originated in Wuhan Institute of Virology, China.
