5 ms·

A little off topic. Why is it not politically correct to name new pathogens (COVID-19) after country of origin, but's fine to name variants by country of origin

A little off topic. Why is it not politically correct to name new pathogens (COVID-19) after country of origin, but's fine to name variants by country of origin?

js2 6y ago
This article exclusively refers to it as the P.1 variant.
anonymouswacker 6y ago
Latin American countries have less influence than China.
choward 6y ago
I've seen articles saying we should treat the B117 (UK) variant as a new virus. Shouldn't we just call it UK virus if it's a new virus? I'm not actually serious. I think naming viruses/variants after places is a mistake to begin with since it's hard to prove where they originate. Also it discourages finding new viruses since you don't want your home country's name to be used in naming it. Nobody knows where the Spanish flu came from. It's just that they were the first ones who paid attention to it since they weren't fighting in WWI.
- sjg007 6y ago
  The current theory is that the Spanish flu originated in Haskell County, Kansas.
Synaesthesia 6y ago
China contained the virus it was in Europe and America’s that it blew up.
- gruez 6y ago
  So naming a virus after a particular country should be dished out as a form of punishment?
- rhino369 6y ago
  China certainly didn't contain it from spreading it to the rest of the world.
- ArkanExplorer 6y ago
  Deaths in Sweden were only 6% higher in 2020 than 2018: https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-deaths/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-... And even that can be mostly explained by a weak flu season there in 2019, and a generally aging population. Its difficult to interpret the deaths from this virus as justifying complete lockdown of societies - especially when Sweden has fewer deaths per capita from COVID than a significant number of countries which did order mandatory lockdowns.
frongpik 6y ago
Because China, unlike South America, has power over others.
neaden 6y ago
Neither are, and generally it's preferred to use another term. If you go to the CDC web page on variants for instance you'll see that it call sit B.1.1.7 not UK Variant https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/varia...
- Arnt 6y ago
  That seems a bit too pedantic... I think the correct answer is that certain persons tried to use the virus' chinese origin as a smear, and now it's unusable. You can't talk like those people because those people talked like that. This happens all the time in Germany (where I live now): Nazis use a phrase or something, and after that using it makes one sound like a nazi even if that's really completely unreasonable. There was a fine example around 2002, when the newspaper editors had a long discussion on how to translate the name of dhs.gov without triggering any prejudice in the readers, just because a long-dead nazi tended to use phrases very much like various possible translations. Noone's been using e.g the South African origin of that variant as a smear, so it doesn't carry any connotations.
  - jfengel 6y ago
    It's not a good idea to name diseases after places, because it's misleading and not informative. The WHO has been telling people that "a disease name should consist of generic descriptive terms" for years: https://www.who.int/news/item/08-05-2015-who-issues-best-practices-for-naming-new-human-infectious-diseases https://www.who.int/news/item/08-05-2015-who-issues-best-pra... It goes well beyond smears. The WHO notes that it can "provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities, create unjustified barriers to travel, commerce and trade, and trigger needless slaughtering of food animals". They point out that the scientists need to get ahead of it. Once a name has taken off in the popular press, it's hard to stop. I'll note that the Department of Homeland Security has a somewhat Orwellian ring in English as well, and that was noted at the time. It sounds like somebody is trying too hard.

A little off topic. Why is it not politically correct to name new pathogens (COVID-19) after country of origin, but's fine to name variants by country of origin?

js2 6y ago

This article exclusively refers to it as the P.1 variant.

anonymouswacker 6y ago

Latin American countries have less influence than China.

choward 6y ago

I've seen articles saying we should treat the B117 (UK) variant as a new virus. Shouldn't we just call it UK virus if it's a new virus? I'm not actually serious. I think naming viruses/variants after places is a mistake to begin with since it's hard to prove where they originate. Also it discourages finding new viruses since you don't want your home country's name to be used in naming it. Nobody knows where the Spanish flu came from. It's just that they were the first ones who paid attention to it since they weren't fighting in WWI.

sjg007 6y ago
The current theory is that the Spanish flu originated in Haskell County, Kansas.

Synaesthesia 6y ago

China contained the virus it was in Europe and America’s that it blew up.

gruez 6y ago
So naming a virus after a particular country should be dished out as a form of punishment?
rhino369 6y ago
China certainly didn't contain it from spreading it to the rest of the world.
ArkanExplorer 6y ago
Deaths in Sweden were only 6% higher in 2020 than 2018: https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-deaths/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-... And even that can be mostly explained by a weak flu season there in 2019, and a generally aging population. Its difficult to interpret the deaths from this virus as justifying complete lockdown of societies - especially when Sweden has fewer deaths per capita from COVID than a significant number of countries which did order mandatory lockdowns.

frongpik 6y ago

Because China, unlike South America, has power over others.

neaden 6y ago

Neither are, and generally it's preferred to use another term. If you go to the CDC web page on variants for instance you'll see that it call sit B.1.1.7 not UK Variant https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/varia...

Arnt 6y ago
That seems a bit too pedantic... I think the correct answer is that certain persons tried to use the virus' chinese origin as a smear, and now it's unusable. You can't talk like those people because those people talked like that. This happens all the time in Germany (where I live now): Nazis use a phrase or something, and after that using it makes one sound like a nazi even if that's really completely unreasonable. There was a fine example around 2002, when the newspaper editors had a long discussion on how to translate the name of dhs.gov without triggering any prejudice in the readers, just because a long-dead nazi tended to use phrases very much like various possible translations. Noone's been using e.g the South African origin of that variant as a smear, so it doesn't carry any connotations.
- jfengel 6y ago
  It's not a good idea to name diseases after places, because it's misleading and not informative. The WHO has been telling people that "a disease name should consist of generic descriptive terms" for years: https://www.who.int/news/item/08-05-2015-who-issues-best-practices-for-naming-new-human-infectious-diseases https://www.who.int/news/item/08-05-2015-who-issues-best-pra... It goes well beyond smears. The WHO notes that it can "provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities, create unjustified barriers to travel, commerce and trade, and trigger needless slaughtering of food animals". They point out that the scientists need to get ahead of it. Once a name has taken off in the popular press, it's hard to stop. I'll note that the Department of Homeland Security has a somewhat Orwellian ring in English as well, and that was noted at the time. It sounds like somebody is trying too hard.