‘Do you have the corona?’: Asians in Chicago worry about damage done after Trump repeatedly called COVID-19 the ‘Chinese virus’

Ro Nguyen thought it would play out differently.

The 30-year-old had just watched a movie at a Streeterville cinema with a friend on March 12 and was strolling down East Grand Avenue around 8 p.m., the two of them marveling at the deserted streets.

As they headed toward the Red Line station, Nguyen said a man walking nearby saw them and yelled out, “F--- China!”

Then the man spat on Nguyen, he said. The saliva splattered on his jacket.

Nguyen, who is of Vietnamese and Filipino descent, had imagined this...