5 ms·

Or all the effort to not call it China Virus/Wuhan flu because that's racist and we don't name viruses after places anymore. Virus variants named after places

Or all the effort to not call it China Virus/Wuhan flu because that's racist and we don't name viruses after places anymore. Virus variants named after places on the other hand are apparently perfectly fine. So we don't have the Chinese virus but we do have British, Brazilian and Indian variants.

bildung 5y ago
Nobody in the world except the US right called it that, and it is indeed uncommon to name viruses after its place of origin.
- zpeti 5y ago
  Literally any new variant has been called by its origin in the last year: -kent/brit variant -indian variant -california variant What are you on about?
  - bildung 5y ago
    > What are you on about? Not those variants, obviously.
- avereveard 5y ago
  Except for the Spanish flu, the Brazilian flu, almost every single mammarenavirus strain...
  - bildung 5y ago
    The Spanish Flu most probably originated in the US, not Spain. Spain just had a pretty free press and published much about it. Never heard about the Brazilian Flu and couldn't find out when and where this was supposed to be, so can't comment here.
    - KMag 5y ago
      The question wasn't historically if the place-of-origin names were accurate. The question was if they were historically common. I think naming diseases after places is a bad practice we should probably do away with, but it certainly has precedent. Offhand, there's also the Marburg virus. My understanding is also that it was unusual to name the Ebola virus after the nearby river instead of the nearby town.
      - brippalcharrid 5y ago
        Isn't it similar to naming medical conditions after the people that discover them? After all, it's naming pathogens after the place where there were was adequate diagnostic expertise to identify them and in which there was sufficient scientific and press freedom to report on them. And geography is obviously important in the context of epidemics/pandemics. No country or locality should receive special treatment in this regard, but much of the MSM appears to have been bought or cowed into submission by the geopolitical influence of the CCP.
- finnthehuman 5y ago
  Mers, lyme, west nile, Rocky Mountain, Zika, hanta, Ebola.
- blululu 5y ago
  Back in the early days Singapore very quickly created a fantastic web based information panel on the state of the Virus in the city. It's still running but they no longer use the original url: http://wuhanvirus.sg http://wuhanvirus.sg
glitchcrab 5y ago
This is incorrect given the new WHO guidelines https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/01/covid-19-variants-to-be-given-greek-alphabet-names-to-avoid-stigma https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/01/covid-19-varia...
- croon 5y ago
  Sure, let's just all blame it on the greeks!
- CorrectHorseBat 5y ago
  I guess it's good that they realized that, but I don't really understand why this time it took half a year. We'll see if the newspapers follow it.
  - glitchcrab 5y ago
    It's good, but it's not exactly easy to remember. Hence why the papers here in the UK now tend to say something like 'the Delta variant, which was first seen in India' - that's only marginally better than 'the Indian variant' tbh.
    - logifail 5y ago
      > It's good, but it's not exactly easy to remember [[.] Saying "$origin virus" is _definitely_ easier to remember than - say - something like "Covid19". Except that we were told that using "$origin" was racist, so we had to stop, and we had to use the non-easy-to-remember version. Where we are the media has been happily talking about "the British variant" and "the Indian variant", but no-one seems to be calling _that_ racist. At least no-one who the media cares about.
- cm2187 5y ago
  Except it is TVs and newspapers that were lecturing us that it was racist to call it the chinese flu and that are now happily using the xx-variant designation. It is the obvious bad faith that I find appalling.
DemocracyFTW 5y ago
> we do have British, Brazilian and Indian variants which will now be re-named by Greek letter names
myko 5y ago
Context matters. The trump administration used those phrases to stir up anti-Chinese and racist sentiments.
- CorrectHorseBat 5y ago
  Context matters, but consistency too. If it's racist too call it the Wuhan flu (which I can agree with) then the Indian variant is too.
  - mixmastamyk 5y ago
    Sounds placist to me.
lugu 5y ago
Not to forget WIV1 virus..

bildung 5y ago

Nobody in the world except the US right called it that, and it is indeed uncommon to name viruses after its place of origin.

zpeti 5y ago
Literally any new variant has been called by its origin in the last year: -kent/brit variant -indian variant -california variant What are you on about?
- bildung 5y ago
  > What are you on about? Not those variants, obviously.
avereveard 5y ago
Except for the Spanish flu, the Brazilian flu, almost every single mammarenavirus strain...
- bildung 5y ago
  The Spanish Flu most probably originated in the US, not Spain. Spain just had a pretty free press and published much about it. Never heard about the Brazilian Flu and couldn't find out when and where this was supposed to be, so can't comment here.
  - KMag 5y ago
    The question wasn't historically if the place-of-origin names were accurate. The question was if they were historically common. I think naming diseases after places is a bad practice we should probably do away with, but it certainly has precedent. Offhand, there's also the Marburg virus. My understanding is also that it was unusual to name the Ebola virus after the nearby river instead of the nearby town.
    - brippalcharrid 5y ago
      Isn't it similar to naming medical conditions after the people that discover them? After all, it's naming pathogens after the place where there were was adequate diagnostic expertise to identify them and in which there was sufficient scientific and press freedom to report on them. And geography is obviously important in the context of epidemics/pandemics. No country or locality should receive special treatment in this regard, but much of the MSM appears to have been bought or cowed into submission by the geopolitical influence of the CCP.
finnthehuman 5y ago
Mers, lyme, west nile, Rocky Mountain, Zika, hanta, Ebola.
blululu 5y ago
Back in the early days Singapore very quickly created a fantastic web based information panel on the state of the Virus in the city. It's still running but they no longer use the original url: http://wuhanvirus.sg http://wuhanvirus.sg

glitchcrab 5y ago

This is incorrect given the new WHO guidelines https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/01/covid-19-variants-to-be-given-greek-alphabet-names-to-avoid-stigma https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/01/covid-19-varia...

croon 5y ago
Sure, let's just all blame it on the greeks!
CorrectHorseBat 5y ago
I guess it's good that they realized that, but I don't really understand why this time it took half a year. We'll see if the newspapers follow it.
- glitchcrab 5y ago
  It's good, but it's not exactly easy to remember. Hence why the papers here in the UK now tend to say something like 'the Delta variant, which was first seen in India' - that's only marginally better than 'the Indian variant' tbh.
  - logifail 5y ago
    > It's good, but it's not exactly easy to remember [[.] Saying "$origin virus" is _definitely_ easier to remember than - say - something like "Covid19". Except that we were told that using "$origin" was racist, so we had to stop, and we had to use the non-easy-to-remember version. Where we are the media has been happily talking about "the British variant" and "the Indian variant", but no-one seems to be calling _that_ racist. At least no-one who the media cares about.
cm2187 5y ago
Except it is TVs and newspapers that were lecturing us that it was racist to call it the chinese flu and that are now happily using the xx-variant designation. It is the obvious bad faith that I find appalling.

DemocracyFTW 5y ago

> we do have British, Brazilian and Indian variants which will now be re-named by Greek letter names

myko 5y ago

Context matters. The trump administration used those phrases to stir up anti-Chinese and racist sentiments.

CorrectHorseBat 5y ago
Context matters, but consistency too. If it's racist too call it the Wuhan flu (which I can agree with) then the Indian variant is too.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  Sounds placist to me.

lugu 5y ago

Not to forget WIV1 virus..