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Amusingly, if you look at the talk section [1] of the Wikipedia article on the Spanish flu, some folks really (suddenly, recently, completely by coincidence) wa
by at_a_remove 7y ago
Amusingly, if you look at the talk section [1] of the Wikipedia article on the Spanish flu, some folks really (suddenly, recently, completely by coincidence) want to call it the 1918 flu.
There's no con job like a retcon job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spanish_flu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spanish_flu
- ceejayoz 7y agoSeems fair enough: > To maintain morale, World War I censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Papers were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain, such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII, and these stories created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit. This gave rise to the pandemic's nickname, "Spanish flu". Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify with certainty the pandemic's geographic origin, with varying views as to the origin. It's not like we call syphilis "French pox" any more.
- at_a_remove 7y agoLyme disease, Ebola, et al would like to have a word.
- ceejayoz 7y agoEbola is actually named that to avoid naming it after a specific village, to reduce the stigma. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22704633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22704633 Lyme disease was around in humans long before its identification in Old Lyme, CT, so it too is an inaccurate name. (We've also learned a few things since the 1970s, let alone 1918. Now, we have a standard: https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-has-a-name-the-deadly-disease-is-covid-19/ https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-has-a-name-the-deadl...)
- at_a_remove 7y agoMarburg.
- ceejayoz 7y ago"Marburg virus was first described in 1967."
- at_a_remove 7y agoAnd shall we rename it?
- ceejayoz 7y agoMarburg's name is at least accurate. There are two separate issues here: Place-based names cause a stigma (an issue for new diseases, less so for historical ones) and that "Spanish flu" is actually completely wrong on the origins of that specific disease.
- at_a_remove 7y agoSo why the timing to rename it? Why now? I am asking that because you did not address it in my original comment, so I am going to harp on it again. Why now?
- ceejayoz 7y agoWhy not? It was a global pandemic that didn't even start in Spain. We happen to be paying a lot of attention to it because it's the last really global pandemic of similar severity/spread to the COVID-19 outbreak. The increased attention to this little bit of history has us asking whether we should correct the inaccuracy in its name. Even the CDC calls it the "1918 flu pandemic". https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/1918-pandemic-history.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoratio... Not as a reaction to COVID-19, either: "Page last reviewed: March 21, 2018"
- Waterluvian 7y agoI demand we stop naming hurricanes after people. I don't know how to handle a reality where my first name is associated with a bad thing.
- ceejayoz 7y agoWe actually do exactly that: we retire hurricane names for being associated with a bad one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retired_Atlantic_hurricane_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retired_Atlantic_hurri...
- at_a_remove 7y agoNot what the poster asked for. We actually don't do that.
- matchagaucho 7y ago"Spanish" Flu is not derogatory when used in the context of explaining the Spanish press were progressive and free to report on their surroundings without gov oppression. Unlike the rest of world, who were covering up their military losses due to illness.
- spanxx 7y agoYeah. The only illness called by a place where it didn't start or was discovered. Totally fair.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]