Queens official fired for calling COVID ‘Wu-Flu’
The Queens Community Board Member has been dismissed from his position following a referral to COVID-19 As “Wu Flow” in a public meeting.
Community 5 Board Member, Richard Hooper, During the January 11th faraway meetingHe said, “When all I’ve heard about the vaccine—these so-called vaccines—against influenza is Wu.”
He was questioning the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines and antiviral drugs amid an increase in the COVID-19 outbreak A new infectious omicron strain.
Board member Derek Evers replied, “I’m not going to comment on the anti-extremist rant we just heard. But I would just like to condemn the racist language that has been used and I don’t think the Community Board is any place for that.”
Queens has the largest population of Asian Americans in the United States.
Borough President Donovan Richards He promptly removed Huber from CB 5 — which covers the Maspeth, Ridgewood, Glendale and Middle Village neighborhoods — citing a planning board member’s code of conduct that prohibits discrimination. The members of the community council are appointed by the mayor in consultation with the members of the city council and has the power to remove them for any reason.
“Over the past three years, our Asian-American neighbors in New York City have seen a rise in prejudice and violence against their community, and I will not tolerate a community board member using language that fueled that wave of bigotry and hate,” Richards said in a statement to The Post, of which He later tweeted a different version.
“So, I removed this person from Community Council 5 in Queens for some reason.”
Hopper’s remarks First reported by Queen’s Ledger.
But there are extensive reports indicating this COVID-19 may have originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
former President Donald Trump has often called COVID-19 the “China virus” or “the Chinese virus,” and he believed it It spread from Wuhan.
Queen’s Councilor Robert Holden—his wife is Japanese-American and has experienced discrimination against Asians—appoints Hooper to CB5. But, he said, Hooper’s ouster by the borough president emanates from abolitionist culture.
He said Richards should have counseled Hooper and given him a chance to explain himself or apologize, and complained that Richards, who is black, is rushing into racial discrimination cases, Including against him. White Holden.
I am married to an Asian American. “The violence against Asians is real,” Holden said.
“I also know that Richard Hopper has a big heart and has done a lot of good things for the neighborhood. There is a body of work that Richard Hopper has done for decades that should be taken into account,” Holden said.
“Donovan Richards cancels people.”
Hooper told The Post that his remark was “offhand” and “wasn’t intended as a slur… I said it. I live with it.”
He said he believes COVID-19 “actually originated in a Wuhan laboratory” in China.
Hooper, a longtime community advocate and member of the Queens Kiwanis Club, likened it to measles being referred to as “rubella” because of the early cases that were first recorded in that country.
He asked to hear his “Wu-Flu” comment in the context of his public remarks, in which he praised doctors and nurses and lamented that some had left the profession because of COVID-19 policies. He also complained that many people were infected with COVID variants after vaccination and boosters, and warned about the side effects of antivirals.
“Everything I’ve ever heard about a vaccine — the so-called vaccines — is against ‘Whoo-flu’. It was just safe and effective and it blocks transmission and keeps you from getting infected with it. That just doesn’t sound quite right,” Huber said.
Public health studies show that those who are vaccinated and boosted are Much less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 If they are injured or injured again.
But New York City health officials recently reported that Omicron’s latest variant, XBB.1.5, was more vulnerable Residents who have been vaccinated or who have previously been infected with the COVID-19 virus.