“COVID literally stands for Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease.”

President Donald Trump has been criticized for calling the new coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus,” a term some fear will encourage xenophobia and abuse against Asian Americans. But a recent Facebook post would have you believe the president’s word choice is closer to the truth than news reports say.  

“Hate to break this to all of the morons who call themselves journalists,” the March 25 post says. “COVID literally stands for ‘Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease and the number 19 is due to this being the 19th virus to come out of China.” 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

That’s because it’s literally wrong. 

The 2019 novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, 2019. The deadly disease caused by this coronavirus has since infected hundreds of thousands of people around the world. 

On Feb. 11, the World Health Organization announced that the name for the disease would be COVID-19 and the complete official name for the virus that causes the disease would be “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” or “SARS-CoV-2.” Until that point, the virus and the infection had been referred to as the “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV.”

“Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing,” tweeted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO.

COVID-19 is an abbreviation of “coronavirus disease 2019,” the CDC says. “CO” stands for “corona,” “VI” stands for “virus” and “D” stands for “disease.” The number 19 reflects the year it was identified — 2019.

We rate this Facebook post Pants on Fire.