A World Health Organization honcho says it is wrong to stigmatize the coronavirus as the
"Chinese virus" as President Donald Trump has defiantly called it.

"This is a time for solidarity, this is a time for facts, this is a time to move forward together, to fight this virus together,," Mike Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s Emergencies Program, said Tuesday in a news conference. "There is no blame in this.

"All we need now is to identify the things we need to do to move forward quickly, with speed and to avoid any indication of ethnic or other associations with this virus." 

Ryan noted the 2009 H1N1 pandemic of so-called swine flu originated in North America but "we don't call it the North American flu."

His comments came after Trump was asked at a news conference why he and his allies frequently use the term "Chinese virus" to refer to the pandemic, and if that was not racist.

"It's not racist at all," Trump replied. "It comes from China, that's why. I want to be accurate."

The novel coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China and has since spread to more than 117 countries and territories.

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