A professor at the University of Cincinnati has been placed on administrative leave and is currently under investigation for describing the coronavirus, correctly, as the “China virus,” as reported by Fox News.
The professor, John Ucker, had previously announced that if any students in his class were unable to attend due to testing positive for the China virus, then Ucker would simply not give them any grade. But one student in Ucker’s class posted a screenshot of Ucker’s email on Twitter, which read in part: “For students testing positive for the Chinese virus, I will give no grade.”
The student complained that he allegedly received a zero in the class for not attending after his girlfriend had tested positive for the virus, but provided no evidence of the zero grade.
Nevertheless, after the tweet went viral, the university announced the following day that Ucker had been suspended, with pay, while an investigation was underway. John Weidner, the university’s Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said that the university had “referred this matter for review to our Office of Equal Opportunity and Access,” describing the comment as “xenophobic,” “stigmitization,” and “more than troubling.”
The president of the university, Neville Pinto, also falsely accused Professor Ucker of racism, saying that “There is no place for bigotry in our community,” and that “we are better than this.”
The increasing leftwing backlash to the phrase “China virus” has stemmed from the fact that President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to it as such, for the purpose of correctly pointing out from where the virus originated, in Wuhan, China. President Trump has done this for the purpose of emphasizing how the Chinese government failed miserably in its initial handling of the virus’s outbreak, even going so far as to cover up its origin and strongarming the World Health Organization to spread lies about the virus’s contagiousness in the early stages of the spread. President Trump has also jokingly referred to the virus as “Kung Flu” at several of his campaign rallies.