Senator says swine flu and MERS started in China like coronavirus. Here are the facts
Texas Sen. John Cornyn was criticized Wednesday for his comments about coronavirus after saying the pandemic came from China because people “eat bats and snake and dogs,” media outlets reported.
“China is to blame because the culture where people eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that, these viruses are transmitted from the animal to the people and that’s why China has been the source of a lot of these viruses like SARS, like MERS, the swine flu, and now the coronavirus, so I think they have a fundamental problem and I don’t object to geographically identifying where it’s coming from,” Cornyn told reporters on Wednesday, according to USA Today.
Sen. John Cornyn: "China is to blame because the culture where people eat bats & snakes & dogs & things like that, these viruses are transmitted from the animal to the people and that's why China has been the source of a lot of these viruses like SARS, like MERS, the Swine Flu." pic.twitter.com/N4TIlGFqAL
— The Hill (@thehill) March 18, 2020
When Cornyn was asked about racism against Asians, he said: “I disagree. We’re not talking about Asians. We’re talking about China, where these viruses emanate from and created this pandemic.”
People on Twitter responded to Cornyn’s comments.
“Can we go back to when being racist in public wasn’t cool?” Democratic attorney and politician Bakari Sellers tweeted.
COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, and is believed to be connected to a live animal and seafood market, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is also caused by a coronavirus and first infected people in southern China in 2002, according the World Health Organization. The virus spread to 26 countries and led to more than 8,000 cases in 2003, according to the WHO.
The novel influenza A (H1N1) virus or swine flu originated in spring 2009 in the U.S. before spreading across the world, according to the CDC. The swine flu contained influenza genes that weren’t identified in animals or people before, the CDC said.
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is also caused by a coronavirus and leads to respiratory illness, according to the CDC. The disease was first reported in September 2012 in Saudi Arabia, the CDC said.
