It was first called the Wuhan Virus by mass media and researchers, even in China. That naming choice was fairly ordinary, similar to Spanish Flu, West Nile Viru

It was first called the Wuhan Virus by mass media and researchers, even in China. That naming choice was fairly ordinary, similar to Spanish Flu, West Nile Virus, or Crimean–Congo fever. The "China virus" term became problematic once it was politicized in a criminally dumb way by the Trump government - back when they claimed it's not dangerous at all and totally under control in the US. Insisting on a more neutral name was helpful for distinguishing reliable information from nonsense. But in my opinion the name Sars-Cov-2 was unhelpful in the long run because people just ended up calling it Covid or Coronavirus instead. Wuhan virus would have been a better naming choice, and it was called like that inside China at the beginning. The politicization of the health crisis (instead of showing solidarity first) was the big issue. Worse, it's still ongoing. If totally neutral names are so important, maybe virologists should start thinking about naming schemes like meteorologists use, e.g. using first names.