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Greg Evans
Feb 10, 2020
A radio station in the Netherlands has been forced to apologise after it played a parody song about coronavirus that encouraged listeners to avoid Chinese food as it might be spreading the disease.
The song called 'Prevention is better than Chinese', which has reportedly been played at Dutch carnivals and is by the artist 'Toon' was played on the 'Late with Lex' show on Radio 10 last week and features lyrics blaming Chinese people for the virus
Rough translations of the song appear to indicate that the song contained lyrics that said:
We don't need the virus in our country, it is all caused by these stinking Chinese people.
and
It will be in the fried rice soon. Don't eat Chinese food.
In a statement released by Radio 10, the station apologised for airing the song and have since removed the video from the channels.
In the show Late with Lex, a sketch was broadcast that was intended as a satirical pick-up on current events and was about the coronavirus.Â
What was meant as satire and joke appears to be experienced as very painful by many.Â
LexRadio 10 and Lex regret this, apologize for this and have now removed the relevant videos from all channels.
Lex Gaarthuis, the DJ who played the song has also issued a personal apology, explaining that the song should have never been played and there was no intention to spread 'racism or hate against anyone.'
A backlash against the song and video has been strongly felt by the Asian community in the Netherlands and have launched a petition called 'We are not viruses' asking people to take a stand against racism and discrimination. At the time of writing, it has received more than 29,000 signatures.
The threat posed by the disease continues to grow. As of Monday morning, more than 40,000 cases of the virus have been reported worldwide, with more than 900 deaths already confirmed.
More: Man forces plane to turn around after telling passengers he had coronavirus for viral video​