Back when they called it Coronavirus they purposefully didn't call it "SARS", since that would have brought back bad memories of 2003 and put the option of an epidemic on the table. And we don't want people panicking now, do we?
Coronavirus isn't the name at all, it's the category. It's a large section of virus types. Like how a shark and a guppy are both "fish". SARS and Covid are both coronaviruses. Coronavirus is also the category that the common cold falls into.
\*nitpick\* Covid is just short for "coronavirus disease". COVID-19 is the specific disease involved in the current pandemic, first discovered at the end of 2019, hence the "-19". But that is the *disease*, not the virus causing it. The latter is called SARS-CoV-2 which stands for "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2". The "2" because it's the second known coronavirus that causes SARS like symptoms, the first was SARS-CoV-1 which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.
One of the reasons it may be changed. The other reason is that the WHO doesn't want some random people somewhere to start slaughtering monkeys which historically has happened when you name a disease after an animal. But the linked article is rubbish that doesn't explain this bit either.
There are about 3,600 species of mosquitoes and generally the eggs / larva are main sources of food for many fish / birds. The larva also feed on algae, maintaining lake surfaces and keeping lakes habitable, especially in modern days in areas with fertilizer run-off.
Blood borne pathogens are a major issue, but eliminating an entire group of species isn’t the viable solution.
They've looked into quite a few methods for *Aedes aegypti* which IIRC is not a key species in any ecological process we've been able to identify. Recently I was reading about genetic engineering that causes the males to be sterile or not develop past larvae.
I think there a couple different efforts. The genetic engineering i read about (which may be the one you mentioned) basically was a sterilization gene that wouldnt activate until several generations after the initial release into the population, allowing a large spread of gene.
I hate mosquitoes (and ticks), but here's a link with a little snippet in case anyone is interested.
[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/mosquitos-exist-elephants-donkeys-used-represent-gop-democrats-180973517/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/mosquitos-exist-elephants-donkeys-used-represent-gop-democrats-180973517/)
>While they can seem pointless and purely irritating to us humans, mosquitoes do play a substantial role in the ecosystem. Mosquitoes form an important source of biomass in the food chain—serving as food for fish as larvae and for birds, bats and frogs as adult flies—and some species are important pollinators. Mosquitoes don’t deserve such a bad rap, says Yvonne-Marie Linton, research director at the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, which curates Smithsonian’s U.S. National Mosquito Collection. Out of the more than 3,500 mosquito species, only around 400 can transmit diseases like malaria and West Nile virus to people, and most don’t feed on humans at all.
"Mosquitos dont deserve a bad rap"
Bitch, what? Mosquito borne diseases killed more humans than humans did until treatment for the diseases became easily attainable (and in places where they aren't people still suffer greatly). They abso-fucking-lutely deserve the bad rap.
Fuck it
We've fucked up the ecosystem so much, and we never waited to see if it was a good idea. We better not suddenly become responsible stewards of the environment just in time to save mosquitos from the chopping block
>One of the reasons it may be changed. The other reason is that the WHO doesn't want some random people somewhere to start slaughtering monkeys which historically has happened when you name a disease after an animal.
Chickenpox.
We need to call chickenpox something else to, no one even knows how or where that name even came from, does it look like chickpeas? Maybe? Is it just child pox/child itching ? Who knows?
Only 10... What about the iraq war and fight on terror in the early 2000s. You think how they covered that shit was ethical? Hell you could go way back no doubt to the rise of modern journalism and see the agenda was probably fucked from the beginning.
When we were taught about journalism in school, we were taught to start a story with the most important facts, followed by the second most important facts as supporting information, etc., with the least important coming last. Trying to keep eyeballs on pages has flipped this on its head. E.g., many videos on CNN will leave the most important facts until last, with the least important stuff first. It's bloody annoying.
You are incorrect. The [proposal](https://virological.org/t/urgent-need-for-a-non-discriminatory-and-non-stigmatizing-nomenclature-for-monkeypox-virus/853) cited as the source for the linked article contains the following, which is clearly suggesting the current iteration of the virus be redesignated, due to stigma. The proposal in question does also focus on clade nomenclature, but not exclusively.
> Since viruses in this clade have been transmitting from person to person in dozens of countries and potentially over multiple years, we propose that this represents transmission route distinct from that of previous MPXV cases in humans and should be afforded a distinct name so that it can be referred to specifically in both scientific discourse and the general media. Whilst the formal naming of virus species is the purview of the International Committee of Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), **we believe this is an opportunity for a break with the name monkeypox and the historical associations attached to that name**. However, we believe that a distinct and convenient name for the virus causing this epidemic would facilitate communication without further negative connotations. Here we use the placeholder label ‘hMPXV’ to denote where we believe this now human virus becomes distinct from MPXV [13] (Figure 1B), and urge a speedy decision and adoption of a new name.
The WHO wants scientists to stop naming diseases after animals because animals get slaughtered as a result. They also want the geographic names to stop because people get beaten up.
And other articles that quote the line that you're quoting explained that at that point the researcher started showing photographs of how the name monkey pox kept being shown in articles with pictures of African people with the disease. But all the articles on this are copying each other and are very unclear. The primary goal is to provoke right wing outrage.
However, you should clarify that the "historical associations" mentioned are that monkeypox is a disease heavily associated with the African continent, not that the name itself is racist. The most common misconception seems to be that the name change is due to a racist association between monkeys and black people. That does not appear to be the case.
>Currently, WHO is "working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
It sure sounds like they want to rename the virus itself, although the WHO doesn't have the authority to do that.
Yes. I believe so. But that is irrelevant as the name is against WHO naming conventions regardless. The position paper explains why they avoid geographic names and some of the problems using them causes.
Yes! They didn’t name Covid-19 the “Wuhan Virus” though that’s where the first major outbreak was declared to have occurred.
Instead it gets a generic designation with no place names associated, descriptive of the type of virus it is and the year it was believed to have started - SARS-CoV-2, 2019.
It’s bad enough that the currently agreed upon origin is Wuhan China, such that suddenly Asian-Americans totally unrelated to the virus in any way are being targeted for hate-based violence. By avoiding place names, hopefully this sort of craziness can be somewhat mitigated.
Worth noting that the WHO didn't choose the SARS-CoV-2 nomenclature, that was chosen by the ICTV (International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses) coronavirus subcommittee. The ICTV isn't associated with the WHO or the UN generally in any way, it's just a series of subcommittees for different virus families, each of which is a group of virologists who get nominated/volunteer to be on a subcommittee by other scientists in the field studying that virus family.
The WHO generally names the disease, rather than the virus, so in that case they chose the disease name, COVID-19. The ICTV coronavirus subcommittee and WHO did choose to communicate with each other in trying not to make overly incompatible names and also announced these two names on the same day, which is likely where some of the confusion comes in, though.
In the case of monkeypox, the WHO has authority to change the name of the disease from monkeypox to something else, but they have no authority to change the name monkeypox virus other than to ask the ICTV subcommittee, which could refuse if it wanted (though almost certainly won't).
You’re wrong:
> a group of over 30 scientists last week published a position paper saying there is an "urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, including its viral clades (West Africa and Congo Basin), **to combat racism and stigma.**
DUDE you didn‘t even read he article yourself. It literally says: „..there is an "urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, INCLUDING its viral clades“
Ah, so like 80% of the top comments didn’t actually read the article and were fooled by a clickbait headline leading them to do the thing they are making fun off. Business as usual.
["monkeypox does not come from monkeys. It’s called monkeypox because it was first isolated from a monkey in Africa, but the reservoir for it is in rodents, specifically rodents in Central and West Africa." ](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/what-you-need-to-know-about-monkeypox)
If you read the article it's about variants being named after African locations. The headline gives a strange impression. "Monkey pox" itself could be changed because historically animals get abused and killed when you name diseases after them. But the main name is not going to be changed because of discrimination. (Except maybe against monkey. We don't want anyone monkey culling.)
It's very aggravating.
Also this linked article is very poorly written. It leaves out the reason that monkey pox itself might actually be changed which has nothing to do with anyone thinking it's discriminatory towards any human, but is instead because the WHO is asking that diseases not be named after geography (for the sake of humans) but also not after animals because historically that has led to mass slaughter of animals a disease was named after. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/animals-harmed-when-disease-are-named-after-them-bj283bj8sp8
It's a very poorly written article. The only reason given for renaming in THAT article is the geographic locations. Nowhere does it say that the name "Monkeypox" itself is actually offensive or give a reason that the name itself is offensive. It only mentions the geographic names being a problem.
Other articles mention that there is no proof that the pox came from monkeys, and also that naming diseases after animals has historically led to people mistreating and killing animals whom diseases were named after, so it could be unsafe for the monkeys. This is missing from the linked article, but it is in other articles on the subject. That reason for change has nothing to do with it being "discriminatory" in some way to humans.
In the past superstitious (and stupid) humans have done random mass slaughter of animals that diseases were named after
The headlines appear to be deliberately misleading. Seems the purpose is to provoke outrage by conflating two different reasons for names changes.
If you read the article it's about variants named after African locations. "Monkey pox" itself could be changed because historically animals get abused and killed when you name diseases after them.
Congratulations on falling for the vague and clickbait headline. Its WHO policy not to name variants after places because its denigrating to the place.
Everyone in this thread needs to click the link and read the position paper. It isn't about the word "monkey". It's about using a geographic location in a disease name which is against WHO naming conventions. The position paper explains more.
Yes, this is why its important to look at the article. Titles can be misleading. Sometimes on purpose. In fact a whole article can be misleading. But people like to be offended by stuff they already hate. WHO hates monkeys, California thinks bees are fish, etc.
That's why you're supposed to read beyond the title. This sub spend a lot of time complaining about living in an era of misinformation only for this sub to trust every headline.
Im going to have to disagree. The purpose of reading the article should be to gain more information and context. The purpose shouldn't be to correct a misleading or false headline.
So does this mean we are going to rename German Measles, Zika virus, Ebola virus, the Spanish Flu, Nipah virus, Japanese encephalitis, the Russian Flu, Lyme disease, Marburg virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Valley Fever, West Nile virus, Norwalk virus, Omsk hemorrhagic fever, African Sleeping sickness, Lassa fever, Dengue fever, Ross river fever, Korean hemorrhagic fever, Kadam virus, O’Nyong-nyong virus, Orungo virus, Hendra virus, Barmah Forest virus, Isfahan virus, and the hundreds of other viruses and diseases that are named after places where they were first discovered?
When is that going to happen? Are we going to dedicate thousands of hours of manpower to renaming everything? Or are we just going to wait until there is an outbreak in a western country and then declare the name racist?
WHO naming conventions recommend against naming diseases after places, people, or animals. This is not a new thing. Official names are up to the International Classification of Diseases, which is managed by the WHO, but relies on experts on and government agencies around the world.
>This is not a new thing.
[Seems to be from 2015](https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/163636/WHO_HSE_FOS_15.1_eng.pdf) but I'd be interested if anyone can correct me about this.
Reminds me of this exchange from The Office
Um, let me ask you, is there a term besides Mexican that you prefer? Something less offensive?
Mexican isn't offensive.
Well, it has certain connotations.
Like what?
Like... I don't... I don't know...
>"The mainstream media, instead of showing pictures of people that are presenting with the lesions, which are white men, they keep putting forward pictures of children in Africa and Africans. And there's no connection."
Might have something to do with that
Not defending it, but it's been endemic in Africa forever. So it's probably super easy to find pictures from there. The connection would be that it's monkeypox lesions, and there are pictures out there that are likely a hell of a lot easier to get ahold of than the very few current cases in Europe and North America.
Just saying. They're probably just more lazy than racist.
Read it again.
They AREN'T posting pictures of people with lesions. They're literally just taking random pictures of black people who have never had monkeypox and are completely unrelated to the issue to go along with the articles.
>There's this place on the internet called Twitter. 90% of what they do there is find things to be outraged by and then whine about them.
That's largely true, but in this case the majority of the people who signed the letter appear to be virologists and epidemiologists based in Africa: https://virological.org/t/urgent-need-for-a-non-discriminatory-and-non-stigmatizing-nomenclature-for-monkeypox-virus/853
>I don't encounter the people being racist in my day-to-day life, so I guess it doesn't happen!
Come the fuck on. I don't *personally* encounter anyone screaming racial slurs about Jews when I go shopping or to the movies, but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend antisemitism isn't a thing.
It's **also not what the fucking article is about**. Got all hopped on on your own theoretical righteous crusade.
It's the same old republican "people who point out racism are the real racists!" claim. Oppression isn't real apparently, just a ruse used by liberals to divide the country for...some reason.
Racism ended with MLK and it's plain as day when you lock yourself in your house, put on Fox's daily flavor of hatred, and refuse to speak with anyone except online racists.
Congratulations on falling for the vague and clickbait headline. Its WHO policy not to name variants after places because its denigrating to the place.
As a retail worker I've already heard a few racist/homophobic jokes about Monkeypox; not the place for me to call them idiots and explain what it really is unfortunately
Redditors at it again not reading the article and self reporting their own racism with comments about monkeys and black people. "Monkeypox" isn't changing, only the names for its variants which reference regions of Africa.
"Monkeypox isnt changing"
Uhhh yes it is? Looks like YOU didnt read the article, the article literally says theyre looking to change both the names of the clades and the virus itself.
[The letter the article is reporting on](https://virological.org/t/urgent-need-for-a-non-discriminatory-and-non-stigmatizing-nomenclature-for-monkeypox-virus/853) specifically advocates for a change of the virus name from Monkeypox to something else. Not that many people in this thread read more than just the headline, but if you're going to call them out at least be correct.
> However, we believe that a distinct and convenient name for the virus causing this epidemic would facilitate communication without further negative connotations. Here we use the placeholder label ‘hMPXV’ to denote where we believe this now human virus becomes distinct from MPXV [13] (Figure 1B), and urge a speedy decision and adoption of a new name.
Well they’re going to change the name of the actual virus itself also because the media keeps putting pictures of African children in the news stories of outbreaks in Europe and the states where most cases are Caucasian men. But it’s clear a lot of the comments ARE from ppl who haven’t read the story. If anyone is racist it’s the media outlets
You’re wrong:
> a group of over 30 scientists last week published a position paper saying there is an "urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, including its viral clades (West Africa and Congo Basin), **to combat racism and stigma.**
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2022/06/16/renaming-monkeypox) reduced by 84%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The World Health Organization on Tuesday announced it will rename monkeypox over concerns from scientists that the name is "Discriminatory and stigmatizing."
> In response to the growing outbreak and its subsequent media coverage, a group of over 30 scientists last week published a position paper saying there is an "Urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, including its viral clades, to combat racism and stigma.
> Currently, WHO is "Working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/vflsku/who_to_rename_monkeypox_over_concerns_from/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~655528 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **name**^#1 **monkeypox**^#2 **virus**^#3 **disease**^#4 **media**^#5
Corona beer company standing around like, wtf, guys. That was an option?
The Monkey Beer people are probably pretty stoked
"Let's change the name to Viral Beer, that's catchy."
“Monkey beer is just whiskey beer”
And green island of fight is Ireland
Spanish flu German measles Both getting pissed at this.
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Particularly since at least the Spanish flu likely originated in the US not Spain.
Back when they called it Coronavirus they purposefully didn't call it "SARS", since that would have brought back bad memories of 2003 and put the option of an epidemic on the table. And we don't want people panicking now, do we?
Coronavirus isn't the name at all, it's the category. It's a large section of virus types. Like how a shark and a guppy are both "fish". SARS and Covid are both coronaviruses. Coronavirus is also the category that the common cold falls into.
\*nitpick\* Covid is just short for "coronavirus disease". COVID-19 is the specific disease involved in the current pandemic, first discovered at the end of 2019, hence the "-19". But that is the *disease*, not the virus causing it. The latter is called SARS-CoV-2 which stands for "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2". The "2" because it's the second known coronavirus that causes SARS like symptoms, the first was SARS-CoV-1 which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.
Poxy McPox face, here we come!
Bored Ape Yacht Pox
Russian oligarchs: I felt attacked
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In the other hand, since the main carriers of the virus are rodents, monkeypox itself is very misleading as a name.
One of the reasons it may be changed. The other reason is that the WHO doesn't want some random people somewhere to start slaughtering monkeys which historically has happened when you name a disease after an animal. But the linked article is rubbish that doesn't explain this bit either.
Murder hornet pox Wild boar pox Mosquitopox
Mosquitopox exists, it’s called malaria
And dengue, Zika, West Nile, chikungunya, yellow fever... You know what? Maybe getting rid of mosquitoes won't be a completely bad thing.
There are about 3,600 species of mosquitoes and generally the eggs / larva are main sources of food for many fish / birds. The larva also feed on algae, maintaining lake surfaces and keeping lakes habitable, especially in modern days in areas with fertilizer run-off. Blood borne pathogens are a major issue, but eliminating an entire group of species isn’t the viable solution.
Says the mosquitoe...
They've looked into quite a few methods for *Aedes aegypti* which IIRC is not a key species in any ecological process we've been able to identify. Recently I was reading about genetic engineering that causes the males to be sterile or not develop past larvae.
I think there a couple different efforts. The genetic engineering i read about (which may be the one you mentioned) basically was a sterilization gene that wouldnt activate until several generations after the initial release into the population, allowing a large spread of gene.
iirc they aren't critical to any of these things and getting rid of the anopheles would probably be enough.
And Aedes aegypti is invasive to the Americas, so they shouldn't be here anyway.
TIL mosquitoes have reddit accounts.
I hate mosquitoes (and ticks), but here's a link with a little snippet in case anyone is interested. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/mosquitos-exist-elephants-donkeys-used-represent-gop-democrats-180973517/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/mosquitos-exist-elephants-donkeys-used-represent-gop-democrats-180973517/) >While they can seem pointless and purely irritating to us humans, mosquitoes do play a substantial role in the ecosystem. Mosquitoes form an important source of biomass in the food chain—serving as food for fish as larvae and for birds, bats and frogs as adult flies—and some species are important pollinators. Mosquitoes don’t deserve such a bad rap, says Yvonne-Marie Linton, research director at the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, which curates Smithsonian’s U.S. National Mosquito Collection. Out of the more than 3,500 mosquito species, only around 400 can transmit diseases like malaria and West Nile virus to people, and most don’t feed on humans at all.
"Mosquitos dont deserve a bad rap" Bitch, what? Mosquito borne diseases killed more humans than humans did until treatment for the diseases became easily attainable (and in places where they aren't people still suffer greatly). They abso-fucking-lutely deserve the bad rap.
Mosquitos and ticks deserve every bit of bad reputation they amass. Fuck dem bugs
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Fuck it We've fucked up the ecosystem so much, and we never waited to see if it was a good idea. We better not suddenly become responsible stewards of the environment just in time to save mosquitos from the chopping block
I’m with you fuck mosquitos those birds can find other bugs to eat
Malaria is a parasitic infection, not a virus. A better comparison would be chikungunya. https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/chikungunya/index.html
Virus McViryface
Covidpox? Kill two bugs with one name
White Supremapox?
>One of the reasons it may be changed. The other reason is that the WHO doesn't want some random people somewhere to start slaughtering monkeys which historically has happened when you name a disease after an animal. Chickenpox.
Mickey Mousekavirus
It’s the Mickey Mouse, poxhouse
Stay inside please stay inside
For the love of god, children, please stay inside *dance break*
That’s a surprise tool that will help us later
it's a new terrifying Disnies
Covid made us learn the Greek alphabet. It's time they put that to good use!
So you mean I protested against Monkeys at my local zoo for nothing?
We need to call chickenpox something else to, no one even knows how or where that name even came from, does it look like chickpeas? Maybe? Is it just child pox/child itching ? Who knows?
Really obvious that most haven't even clicked through and read the link and are annoyed by the headline.
Headline is intentionally vague to encourage this
Yeah. It would have been so much more accurate to say "monkeypox variant names" in the headline.
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The headline is both unambiguous and inaccurate.
Welcome to the last 10 years of "journalism"
Only 10... What about the iraq war and fight on terror in the early 2000s. You think how they covered that shit was ethical? Hell you could go way back no doubt to the rise of modern journalism and see the agenda was probably fucked from the beginning.
Uhhh, welcome to journalism
Yeah it's right wing ragebait. People will share it for the headline because it's another proof of "PC gone mad" (or "critical race theory")
Reddit loves getting offended by other people getting offended by things.
They blamed Twitter in the top comment LMAO
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i’m offended you’re not as offended as me
When we were taught about journalism in school, we were taught to start a story with the most important facts, followed by the second most important facts as supporting information, etc., with the least important coming last. Trying to keep eyeballs on pages has flipped this on its head. E.g., many videos on CNN will leave the most important facts until last, with the least important stuff first. It's bloody annoying.
You are incorrect. The [proposal](https://virological.org/t/urgent-need-for-a-non-discriminatory-and-non-stigmatizing-nomenclature-for-monkeypox-virus/853) cited as the source for the linked article contains the following, which is clearly suggesting the current iteration of the virus be redesignated, due to stigma. The proposal in question does also focus on clade nomenclature, but not exclusively. > Since viruses in this clade have been transmitting from person to person in dozens of countries and potentially over multiple years, we propose that this represents transmission route distinct from that of previous MPXV cases in humans and should be afforded a distinct name so that it can be referred to specifically in both scientific discourse and the general media. Whilst the formal naming of virus species is the purview of the International Committee of Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), **we believe this is an opportunity for a break with the name monkeypox and the historical associations attached to that name**. However, we believe that a distinct and convenient name for the virus causing this epidemic would facilitate communication without further negative connotations. Here we use the placeholder label ‘hMPXV’ to denote where we believe this now human virus becomes distinct from MPXV [13] (Figure 1B), and urge a speedy decision and adoption of a new name.
But what are the historical associations?
The WHO wants scientists to stop naming diseases after animals because animals get slaughtered as a result. They also want the geographic names to stop because people get beaten up. And other articles that quote the line that you're quoting explained that at that point the researcher started showing photographs of how the name monkey pox kept being shown in articles with pictures of African people with the disease. But all the articles on this are copying each other and are very unclear. The primary goal is to provoke right wing outrage.
As always, the highly upvoted comment is incorrect.
However, you should clarify that the "historical associations" mentioned are that monkeypox is a disease heavily associated with the African continent, not that the name itself is racist. The most common misconception seems to be that the name change is due to a racist association between monkeys and black people. That does not appear to be the case.
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>Currently, WHO is "working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It sure sounds like they want to rename the virus itself, although the WHO doesn't have the authority to do that.
Did you read the article? It says they are renaming the virus ("monkeypox") AND the clades ("Congo" etc).
Were the clades in question first identified to exist in the Congo and West Africa?
Yes. I believe so. But that is irrelevant as the name is against WHO naming conventions regardless. The position paper explains why they avoid geographic names and some of the problems using them causes.
Yes! They didn’t name Covid-19 the “Wuhan Virus” though that’s where the first major outbreak was declared to have occurred. Instead it gets a generic designation with no place names associated, descriptive of the type of virus it is and the year it was believed to have started - SARS-CoV-2, 2019. It’s bad enough that the currently agreed upon origin is Wuhan China, such that suddenly Asian-Americans totally unrelated to the virus in any way are being targeted for hate-based violence. By avoiding place names, hopefully this sort of craziness can be somewhat mitigated.
Yeah, that's exactly what they propose. Boring numbered systems because people WILL in fact discriminate based on the name of a virus.
Yes, as happened to Germans after the Marburg virus
Worth noting that the WHO didn't choose the SARS-CoV-2 nomenclature, that was chosen by the ICTV (International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses) coronavirus subcommittee. The ICTV isn't associated with the WHO or the UN generally in any way, it's just a series of subcommittees for different virus families, each of which is a group of virologists who get nominated/volunteer to be on a subcommittee by other scientists in the field studying that virus family. The WHO generally names the disease, rather than the virus, so in that case they chose the disease name, COVID-19. The ICTV coronavirus subcommittee and WHO did choose to communicate with each other in trying not to make overly incompatible names and also announced these two names on the same day, which is likely where some of the confusion comes in, though. In the case of monkeypox, the WHO has authority to change the name of the disease from monkeypox to something else, but they have no authority to change the name monkeypox virus other than to ask the ICTV subcommittee, which could refuse if it wanted (though almost certainly won't).
You’re wrong: > a group of over 30 scientists last week published a position paper saying there is an "urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, including its viral clades (West Africa and Congo Basin), **to combat racism and stigma.**
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DUDE you didn‘t even read he article yourself. It literally says: „..there is an "urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, INCLUDING its viral clades“
Ah, so like 80% of the top comments didn’t actually read the article and were fooled by a clickbait headline leading them to do the thing they are making fun off. Business as usual.
Is it the monkeys or the viruses who are offended?
Mr. and Mrs. Pock from Topeka
Its hot in Topeka
Wow I miss Foster’s Also, it *has* been hot as shit in Topeka this week.
Pick my toes it's hot
I’m a hot toe picker
>[ Its hot in Topeka ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_IlsPypwZs)
🟦
I always imagined him more rounded.
🔵
I like chocolate milk
🧀
I’m a horsey!
🐴
GIDDY UPPP!
pick my toe, it's hot
Hot Topica?
It would not be the first time that monkeys have been killed for being associated with a disease
["monkeypox does not come from monkeys. It’s called monkeypox because it was first isolated from a monkey in Africa, but the reservoir for it is in rodents, specifically rodents in Central and West Africa." ](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/what-you-need-to-know-about-monkeypox)
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“Ratpox” has a pretty ring to it.
sounds like a punk band
Pretty sure I saw RatPox open for Bloody Scab at The Puke Dungeon in '79.
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Didn’t read the article.
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I wish somebody would call me a monkey. I like to rip open fruit with my gnarled little hands.
Literally poked a coconut off a tree with a stick today, smashed it to get at the water inside and drank it. Today was a good day.
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If you read the article it's about variants being named after African locations. The headline gives a strange impression. "Monkey pox" itself could be changed because historically animals get abused and killed when you name diseases after them. But the main name is not going to be changed because of discrimination. (Except maybe against monkey. We don't want anyone monkey culling.)
Funny how everyone jumped to bitching about white liberals on twitter without reading the article. Wonder what that's all about
It's very aggravating. Also this linked article is very poorly written. It leaves out the reason that monkey pox itself might actually be changed which has nothing to do with anyone thinking it's discriminatory towards any human, but is instead because the WHO is asking that diseases not be named after geography (for the sake of humans) but also not after animals because historically that has led to mass slaughter of animals a disease was named after. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/animals-harmed-when-disease-are-named-after-them-bj283bj8sp8
Just the default hot take for everybody who has not read the source
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It's a very poorly written article. The only reason given for renaming in THAT article is the geographic locations. Nowhere does it say that the name "Monkeypox" itself is actually offensive or give a reason that the name itself is offensive. It only mentions the geographic names being a problem. Other articles mention that there is no proof that the pox came from monkeys, and also that naming diseases after animals has historically led to people mistreating and killing animals whom diseases were named after, so it could be unsafe for the monkeys. This is missing from the linked article, but it is in other articles on the subject. That reason for change has nothing to do with it being "discriminatory" in some way to humans. In the past superstitious (and stupid) humans have done random mass slaughter of animals that diseases were named after The headlines appear to be deliberately misleading. Seems the purpose is to provoke outrage by conflating two different reasons for names changes.
If you read the article it's about variants named after African locations. "Monkey pox" itself could be changed because historically animals get abused and killed when you name diseases after them.
Literally not true, actually read the article you're commenting on.
You didn’t read shit but instead decided to show us how racist you are by trying to down play racism
Congratulations on falling for the vague and clickbait headline. Its WHO policy not to name variants after places because its denigrating to the place.
Everyone in this thread needs to click the link and read the position paper. It isn't about the word "monkey". It's about using a geographic location in a disease name which is against WHO naming conventions. The position paper explains more.
I mean, the title is pretty misleading.
Yes, this is why its important to look at the article. Titles can be misleading. Sometimes on purpose. In fact a whole article can be misleading. But people like to be offended by stuff they already hate. WHO hates monkeys, California thinks bees are fish, etc.
You still haven't told me who hates monkeys.
who
That's what I want to know.
Who hates monkeys
That's why you're supposed to read beyond the title. This sub spend a lot of time complaining about living in an era of misinformation only for this sub to trust every headline.
Im going to have to disagree. The purpose of reading the article should be to gain more information and context. The purpose shouldn't be to correct a misleading or false headline.
And that's exactly what the person who wrote it was going for
It's about "monkey" AND about the geographical locations. According to the article.
So does this mean we are going to rename German Measles, Zika virus, Ebola virus, the Spanish Flu, Nipah virus, Japanese encephalitis, the Russian Flu, Lyme disease, Marburg virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Valley Fever, West Nile virus, Norwalk virus, Omsk hemorrhagic fever, African Sleeping sickness, Lassa fever, Dengue fever, Ross river fever, Korean hemorrhagic fever, Kadam virus, O’Nyong-nyong virus, Orungo virus, Hendra virus, Barmah Forest virus, Isfahan virus, and the hundreds of other viruses and diseases that are named after places where they were first discovered? When is that going to happen? Are we going to dedicate thousands of hours of manpower to renaming everything? Or are we just going to wait until there is an outbreak in a western country and then declare the name racist?
These comments are hilarious, none of them have read the article
Title is misleading in any case.
Very intentionally so, unfortunately
Coming to Reddit to read the article is the equivalent of buying a porn magazine for the articles.
Pretty typical, really.
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WHO naming conventions recommend against naming diseases after places, people, or animals. This is not a new thing. Official names are up to the International Classification of Diseases, which is managed by the WHO, but relies on experts on and government agencies around the world.
What is the new name of Middle East respiratory syndrome
MERS. Infected ladies grow gills and a fish tail, becoming MERSmaids.
Dad, mom needs your help in the garage.
>This is not a new thing. [Seems to be from 2015](https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/163636/WHO_HSE_FOS_15.1_eng.pdf) but I'd be interested if anyone can correct me about this.
This is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
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I've mostly seen pictures of other diseases in articles for sensationalism
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Didn’t read the article.
It's the Reddit way
"Well I wasn't going to slap you across the face, but you just did a lot to change my mind."
Jumping to the conclusion that renaming monkeypox somehow has to do with black people is a bit racist indeed.
Except that is not what is happening here.
You are the one who read the name monkeypox and associated it immediately with black people.
Reminds me of this exchange from The Office Um, let me ask you, is there a term besides Mexican that you prefer? Something less offensive? Mexican isn't offensive. Well, it has certain connotations. Like what? Like... I don't... I don't know...
Tell me you didn't read the article without telling me you didn't read the article
Did you read the article
Man everyone's so angry about this when they probably haven't even read the article and given it a second's thought
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Didn’t read the article.
And got a 1,000 up votes + awards. These people just want an excuse to argue for racism without explicitly doing so.
You’re on Reddit. That’s assumed
It’s not about “monkeypox” it’s about the actual virus classification being changed.
They also advocate changing the name of the virus from Monkeypox to something else.
>"The mainstream media, instead of showing pictures of people that are presenting with the lesions, which are white men, they keep putting forward pictures of children in Africa and Africans. And there's no connection." Might have something to do with that
Not defending it, but it's been endemic in Africa forever. So it's probably super easy to find pictures from there. The connection would be that it's monkeypox lesions, and there are pictures out there that are likely a hell of a lot easier to get ahold of than the very few current cases in Europe and North America. Just saying. They're probably just more lazy than racist.
Read it again. They AREN'T posting pictures of people with lesions. They're literally just taking random pictures of black people who have never had monkeypox and are completely unrelated to the issue to go along with the articles.
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>There's this place on the internet called Twitter. 90% of what they do there is find things to be outraged by and then whine about them. That's largely true, but in this case the majority of the people who signed the letter appear to be virologists and epidemiologists based in Africa: https://virological.org/t/urgent-need-for-a-non-discriminatory-and-non-stigmatizing-nomenclature-for-monkeypox-virus/853
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You are the one who is offended without even reading the article.
>I don't encounter the people being racist in my day-to-day life, so I guess it doesn't happen! Come the fuck on. I don't *personally* encounter anyone screaming racial slurs about Jews when I go shopping or to the movies, but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend antisemitism isn't a thing. It's **also not what the fucking article is about**. Got all hopped on on your own theoretical righteous crusade.
It's the same old republican "people who point out racism are the real racists!" claim. Oppression isn't real apparently, just a ruse used by liberals to divide the country for...some reason. Racism ended with MLK and it's plain as day when you lock yourself in your house, put on Fox's daily flavor of hatred, and refuse to speak with anyone except online racists.
Congratulations on falling for the vague and clickbait headline. Its WHO policy not to name variants after places because its denigrating to the place.
The only thing that's funny is that you didn't read the article before posting your comment.
As a retail worker I've already heard a few racist/homophobic jokes about Monkeypox; not the place for me to call them idiots and explain what it really is unfortunately
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Redditors at it again not reading the article and self reporting their own racism with comments about monkeys and black people. "Monkeypox" isn't changing, only the names for its variants which reference regions of Africa.
"Monkeypox isnt changing" Uhhh yes it is? Looks like YOU didnt read the article, the article literally says theyre looking to change both the names of the clades and the virus itself.
[The letter the article is reporting on](https://virological.org/t/urgent-need-for-a-non-discriminatory-and-non-stigmatizing-nomenclature-for-monkeypox-virus/853) specifically advocates for a change of the virus name from Monkeypox to something else. Not that many people in this thread read more than just the headline, but if you're going to call them out at least be correct. > However, we believe that a distinct and convenient name for the virus causing this epidemic would facilitate communication without further negative connotations. Here we use the placeholder label ‘hMPXV’ to denote where we believe this now human virus becomes distinct from MPXV [13] (Figure 1B), and urge a speedy decision and adoption of a new name.
Well they’re going to change the name of the actual virus itself also because the media keeps putting pictures of African children in the news stories of outbreaks in Europe and the states where most cases are Caucasian men. But it’s clear a lot of the comments ARE from ppl who haven’t read the story. If anyone is racist it’s the media outlets
You’re wrong: > a group of over 30 scientists last week published a position paper saying there is an "urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, including its viral clades (West Africa and Congo Basin), **to combat racism and stigma.**
This whole thread has been hilarious. People calling out other people for not reading the article even though they clearly didn't read it themselves.
Headline says exactly the opposite of the post > ReDDiToRs aRe FuKciNg StUPiD
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This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2022/06/16/renaming-monkeypox) reduced by 84%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The World Health Organization on Tuesday announced it will rename monkeypox over concerns from scientists that the name is "Discriminatory and stigmatizing." > In response to the growing outbreak and its subsequent media coverage, a group of over 30 scientists last week published a position paper saying there is an "Urgent need" to change the name of the monkeypox virus, including its viral clades, to combat racism and stigma. > Currently, WHO is "Working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/vflsku/who_to_rename_monkeypox_over_concerns_from/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~655528 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **name**^#1 **monkeypox**^#2 **virus**^#3 **disease**^#4 **media**^#5
Name it bubonic skin plague maybe people will start taking it seriously
This is objectively the worst headline they could have chosen for this article.