The chairman of the Riley County Commissioners suggested this week that the global coronavirus pandemic is not a problem locally because unlike in Italy, there are not a lot of Chinese people living in central Kansas, according to two other officials who attended the meeting Wednesday night.

Before we go any further, the scientific term for this kind of xenophobic falsehood is bunkum.

Usha Reddi, the mayor of Manhattan, Kansas, went to the meeting hoping that the commissioners would declare an emergency, which they ultimately did. But what she heard from the chairman, Republican Marvin Rodriguez, was this: “I’m paraphrasing, but he said we don’t have a problem here because Italy has a lot of Chinese people, and we don’t have that problem here.”

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Reached by phone, Rodriguez told The Star Editorial Board, “I didn’t necessarily say it like that.” So how did he say it? “Italy has a problem with its health department, first. It’s health for everybody. I have a friend in the Navy, and he said in that area” of Northern Italy where that country’s first cases were reported, “there’s a garment industry and a lot of Chinese. If we were like Italy, we’d have it already.”

We do have it already. But, does he understand why it’s dangerous to Asian Americans to talk like that, and that there has been an increase in reported attacks?

“Well, they say it came out of China,” he answered, “and I’m not putting it past the Chinese government in communist China.” Meaning, to export a virus on purpose? “Normally, this kind of thing spreads slowly,” he answered, so “I put two and two together. I’ve been around a long time, girl.”

He also said that his only public policy goal in saying all of this was to try to discourage panic. “We’re hurting a lot of people in Manhattan” by overreacting, he said. “Places are being shut down for no reason at all.”

All of the above not only encourages racist attacks but also encourages the public to ignore the life-saving advice of public health officials to take proper precautions to avoid transmitting the virus.

“This is false information,” Reddi said of Rodriguez’ remarks. “It’s not keeping the community safe. I felt very uncomfortable” hearing his comments about Chinese people.

Reddi, who is running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat but has put her campaign on pause over concerns about the global pandemic, said that in an earlier conversation with Rodriguez, she urged him to take more serious measures to encourage social distancing and self-quarantining, “and he said the way I’m talking about this is Stalin-like.”

John Ford, vice chairman of the Riley County commissioners, said that in the moment, Rodriguez’ remarks really hadn’t really registered. “I didn’t think anything about it, we were discussing so much other stuff. It didn’t sink in. But now, after the fact, I get it … I’m sorry it came to that. I don’t know if it was a slip of the tongue, but I had a lot of other things on my mind.”

Officials at every level do have a lot on their minds, including making decisions that will keep more people alive.

But such talk is not a slip of the tongue. It hurts real people in real ways to call COVID-19 “the Chinese virus,” as President Donald Trump insists on doing. Our elected leaders should all be making clear that it’s harmful and wrong to speak that way.

The proof that it is a racial slur is the effect it’s having, with Asian Americans suffering an increase in attacks of all kinds, just when we most need to come together — paradoxically, by staying apart.

That the coronavirus has no nationality should be obvious. It’s no more the fault of the Chinese people, or of their government, than it was the fault of Kansans that the “Spanish flu” of a century ago seems to have started in Kansas. Very close to home for Mr. Rodriguez, in fact, among World War I soldiers at Camp Funston, part of Fort Riley in Geary and Riley counties.

Chinese officials were wrong in their initial response, just as U.S. officials were wrong to downplay first the threat of any pandemic, and then, for months, of this one in particular. And any official who, like Rodriguez, is even now downplaying the seriousness of this situation is doing a great disservice to his or her constituents.

From the White House to Riley County, Kansas, xenophobia is always an impediment to public safety. Remarks that in any way suggest that the more Chinese people, the bigger the problem, reflect a dangerous lack of both knowledge and compassion.

Reddi was right to call out her colleague. And all the absence of local cases really shows is a lack of testing. “This is devastating, and we’re not ready,” Reddi said of the suffering that’s coming, “but you can’t be an irresponsible public official” and pretend otherwise.