Harsha Bhogle Faces Flak For Calling Covid-19 'Chinese Virus'; Check Out His Tweet Which Started It All

Netizens were offended at these comments by Bhogle as many felt that he was "politicising" the entire issue. "The Chinese virus has now infiltrated the England cricket team," Bhogle wrote on Twitter.

(File Photo/ Getty Images)

New Delhi: Famous cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle is facing flack on Twitter for calling Covid-19 a 'Chinese Virus'. He was tweeting in context to the news about 7 members of the England team getting affected by the Corona virus on Tuesday. 

Netizens were offended at these comments by Bhogle as many felt that he was "politicising" the entire issue. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued guidelines in which it says that there shouldn't be any "unnecessary negative impact of disease names on trade, travel tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups." Thus, nowhere in the world, the Covid-19 is called the Chinese virus. Even ex-US President Donald Trump faced criticism for called Covid-19 a 'Chinese virus'. 

Harsha Bhogale wrote, "It doesn't look like it is going anywhere. The Chinese virus has now infiltrated the England cricket team. The bubbles will get more stringent. I guess there is no other option," on Twitter. 

According to the WHO guidelines, the disease should not be associated with any nationality or ethnicity. That's the same reason why the Delta variant isn't named after India even though the first cases of the Delta variant were found in India. 

Here are some of the critical replies on the Tweet:

• "And Indians get mad if we say Indian virus...oh the irony."
• "Very unlike Harsha. Absolutely no need politicize the virus. We wouldn't like the Delta variant being called the Indian variant."
• "Virus doesn't have nationalities. A reason they are given naming conventions by Scientists. The variant at peak in the UK is an "Indian" variant, but it's called Delta now, and rightly so. You might want to correct yourself."
• "Haha many are appreciating that u have mentioned "Chinese virus", but I didn't expect this from you, sir. It may or can be avoided"
• "Chinese ??? Expected better from you"

Later, he clarified himself by saying,"I noticed the use of the South African variant, the Brazil variant and the Indian variant. I guess it is the norm to refer to something by the country of origin."

Harsha Bhogle was speaking in context to the 7 members of the English ODI team who were affected by Covid-19 on Tuesday. Due to this development, England had to pick a completely new squad for the ODI series against Pakistan.