The "Chinese" Virus

There has been a lot of partisan rhetoric surrounding the naming of Covid-19. I have seen fallacious arguments being made from both sides of the political isle. What do you make of this argument?

We see no problem with calling food that originates from China, "Chinese Food."
Therefore, we should see no problem with calling viruses that originate in China, "Chinese Viruses."

Chinese food is a style specific to China (or an overarching term which covers various locations), the virus may have originated there but it is clearly not specific to a region and/or country, and isn't being spread by Chinese people specifically. 

Emigrants settle in communities in their new home and being their culture and cuisine, partly as a bond within the community and partly because that's what they like and know. I think it would be absurd to suggest that they have a hankering for a virus and chose to bring it via migration, which clearly didn't happen. This would be a weak analogy.

On the other hand, I don't really see a big deal in calling in that, depending on the message behind the words. Did the Spanish have a problem with an influenza epidemic which didn't originate in Spain? Ironically it is thought to have originated in China, spreading to Europe with workers who came to replace the people drafted to the Western front. So why not go with that formula and call it the Spanish virus?

The rhetoric I'm aware of seems to be along the lines of "this foreign virus taking American virus' jobs!" along with the ridiculous "this is most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history" trying to turn it into a patriotic rallying point to bolster a disastrous attempt at running a country which is the laughing stock of the world. It's similar to how many struggling governments would start a war to garner public support. 

Under normal circumstances it might not be a problem, but with the cynical motives I suspect are behind the label, at a time where America and China have been involved in commercial brinkmanship, it probably isn't very helpful but is certainly consistent. I suspect that Winnie the Pooh will continue to outsmart the commander of cheese where it counts. 

"We see no problem with calling food that originates from China, "Chinese Food." 
Therefore, we should see no problem with calling viruses that originate in China, "Chinese Viruses.""

This is a false equivalence fallacy. 

Both Chinese food and COVID-19 come from China., but COVID-19 (a deadly virus which kills innocent people) and Chinese food (their culture) are not equal. 

Here's what I'm noticing. They are 

1. Missing context 2. Applying generalizations and 3. restricting the use of a word.

Principles or logic used

If we use a label to identify something that originated from it, then anything that originated from that label should have that label.

Example: 

Pete the cook made a tomato sauce. In the process, he accidentally dropped some tomatoes to the floor and they were all squashed. He then accidentally forgot that the squashed tomatoes were on the floor and added them to a new batch. This new batch is therefore a tomato sauce. 

Relating it to the original argument, Chinese food is intentionally made but not the virus; so attaching the word "Chinese" misses that distinction. In my example, the squashed tomatoes that fell to the floor might be a tomato sauce but not the one that we might think. 

This could be an Appeal to Definition because we would be restricting what we mean by "tomato sauce" or Chinese related things. Moreover, if we say that Pete made a tomato sauce, then we could either be saying that he made the one that he originally intended to make or made the one that was done by accident with tomatoes that were on the floor. This would be a Contextomy depending on how much knowledge the arguer has (claim: this is a tomato sauce). 

Finally, I mentioned that there is also some kind of generalization. To say things that originated from China are therefore Chinese might suggest that those originations are due to Chinese culture. This is Stereotyping (the fallacy) .

The term "Chinese" is neutral and accurate in many contexts, but may be used for hasty generalization, when mere origin is conflated with implied malevolence.

Not only Chinese food, but Chinese people are well-defined phrases, one with the context of style, the other with origination or recognizable ethnicity.

On the other hand, no one imagined malevolence in the term "Spanish flu" and I don't even know if it's factual that it came from Spain.  It's just a term, and Chinese virus is no more nor less in my view.

On the other hand (3, so far...perhaps I'm acting as an economist), the likely genesis of the partisan rhetoric arises from political opportunism imo, a form of special pleading an old article in the NY Times called "ethnocentric insider/outsider doctrine".  "Anybody but Trumpism" if you will, maybe a new fallacy (generically, "special negative pleading").

By the way, there's a limitation on patent examiners' rejection of applications called "reading into", by which their denial may be reversed when the rejection is based on possibilities of prior art.  I think in the current kerfluffle, the media is reading into what Trump said.

Objectively, the evidence I've read makes it likely factual that coronavirus evolved in and was transmitted from China.  Is it somehow disingenuous to say where it came from, so PC-ness makes cowards of us all?

The term, "Chinese Virus" originates from Donald Trump. The following thought experiments might reveal some possible double standards or special pleading in Trumps rational in inventing this new name for COVID-19. 

Ok, lets go off probabilities here. What percent chance do you think Trump would change the name to, "The American Virus" if it had originated in America?

What percent chance do you think that Trump would verbally attack China's leader if China's leader had changed the name to, The American Virus?"

What percent chance do you think Trump would change the name to, "The Israel Virus" if it originated in Israel?

What percent probability do you think Trump would change the name to, "The China Virus" if it originated in China?

What percent chance do you think Trump would change the name to, "The Mexican Virus" if it originated in Mexico?

What percent change do you think Trump would change the name to, "The Norway Virus" if it had originated in Norway? 

What percent chance do you think Trump would change the name to, "The Joe Biden Virus" if it originated in Biden? 

This is all due to Trumps biases and political strategy with his dog whistles. His supporters love Trump because he triggers their perceived political enemies with his dog whistles and covert language that has plausible deniability, and they love him for that. It might be a form of sadism?

BTW, the Spanish Flu originated in America, not Spain.