Kellyanne Conway Makes False Claim About The Nature of the Name “Covid-19”

Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway defended President Donald Trump amid criticisms over his decision to defund the World Health Organization (WHO) as the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

“The President took decisive and immediate action at the end of January to shut down flights to China,” she said during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.” “That was criticized by the WHO. It was criticized by other people as xenophobic and racist and travel bans don’t work. Well, this one sure did. We have every right to know. And every right to know because what’s happened here in this global pandemic.”

Conway then implied that WHO was possibly obscuring the actual facts and figures on the pandemic and had multiple chances to address the problem of coronavirus before it snowballed.

“But there’s another reason, some of the scientists and doctors say that there could be other strains later on. This could come back in the fall in a limited way. This is Covid-19, not Covid-1, folks,” she said. “You would think that people charged with the World Health Organization facts and figures would be on top of that. This is just a pause right now. So there is an investigation, examination to what happened. But people should know the facts.”

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You can watch the exchange below.

This is false: The reason why the coronavirus is named “Covid-19” is because the virus emerged in 2019 and was named in accordance with WHO “best practices.”

“Following WHO best practices for naming of new human infectious diseases, which were developed in consultation and collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),” WHO notes in February 11 Situation Report. “WHO has named the disease Covid-19, short for ‘coronavirus disease 2019.'”

“This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003,” WHO continues. “While related, the two viruses are different.”

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.