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World Health Organization Has New Rules For Avoiding Offensive Names
sciencehabit writes: Last week The World Health Organization (WHO) decided to address not only the physical toll of disease but the stigma inflicted by diseases named for people, places, and animals as well. Among the existing names that its new guidelines "for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases" would discourage: Ebola, swine flu, Rift valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and monkey pox. The organization suggests researchers, health officials, and journalists should use more neutral, generic terms, such as severe respiratory disease or novel neurologic syndrome instead. “It will certainly lead to boring names and a lot of confusion,” predicts Linfa Wang, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. “You should not take political correctness so far that in the end no one is able to distinguish these diseases,” says Christian Drosten, a virologist at the University of Bonn, Germany.
I understand avian flu wasn't the best idea since people feared birds. But what's wrong with Ebola?
You name a disease for a creature and it's open season on that creature - and the destroys any business that uses them.
These things happen even if the location/creature is only tangentially related to the disease.
But there is no reason not to name a disease after the first patient/doctor that gets/discovers it.
Worst case scenario, they have to change their name.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
...of the poor stigmatized pigs!
Oh wait.
That and "Ebola" sounds like E. coli, causing people to confuse the two.
Wait until the tyrants of Reddit get their hands on these new rules!
Will this help, or will "acute respiratory syndrome" become the new offensive term?
Intel, AMD and nVidia sure seem to know how to make up obscure and arcane names for their products, maybe the W.H.O. should ask them.
Disease #i23-DX4-R327-GTX543 has a nice ring to it.
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FUCK YOU!
That depends on your goals. If you wish to be able to effectively communicate and avoid confusion, then, yes, Frau Drosten is correct. But, if political correctness is your goal, then clarity can suffer.
Now, who could possibly prefer the latter over the former? 10 years ago, I would've said "nobody" or "only an idiot". But, having witnessed people appointed to a variety of profoundly important positions based at least partially on the basis of their race, I am no longer sure. People responsible for these appointments are obviously not idiots...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
The organization suggests researchers, health officials, and journalists should use more neutral, generic terms, such as severe respiratory disease or novel neurologic syndrome instead. “It will certainly lead to boring names and a lot of confusion,” predicts Linfa Wang
WHO thought this was a good idea? It's all fun and games until someone confuses two different severe respiratory diseases, or a novel neurologic syndrome for an older neurologic syndrome.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
my doctor said i've got Respira 6.
Goddammit, you're fucking stupid...
The problem is removal of responsibility, which puts everyone in their own fluffy bubble where they can't be hurt nor they can do anything.
You don't go to Spain because you heard about the Spanish flu? Your loss, and an advantage for those who use their brain.
I am not letting anybody dictate how I must express myself, how I must think. What I do can have social repercussions, what I think or what I say (most of the time) are not business of societies that proclaim themselves free.
First it's about national security, then religious sensitivity, then normal sensitivity, then whatever is deemed offensive for whatever reason, then the truth dies.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
We should name them after politicians and ambulance chasing lawyers. It can't possibly give them a worse reputation and the confusion may result in more funding for the eradication efforts.
Don't name anything with the word Belg... oh, I almost said it right there.
This word has been known to start intergalactic wars.
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It's about time. Every time I talk to a pig, he complains about the naming of swine flu.
Do I have
severe respiratory disease 1
severe respiratory disease 2
severe respiratory disease 3
Or, in the classroom...
Who can tell me what the major differences are between severe respiratory disease 1 and severe respiratory disease 17?
The New-From-Asia disease. Or the Old-From-Asia disease. Bought cover it.
Some settling may occur during posting.
I can see the case for avoiding overt offense just for giggles(Hey, let's call the downs babies 'mongoloids' just like the good old days!); but this WHO suggestion seems both excessively broad(eg. diseases named for people almost always honor discoverers or significant researchers, which is hardly stigmatizing; diseases named after locations, unless novel as all hell, tend to better known than their place of origin/discovery pretty quickly) and deeply futile(the veterinarians and epidemiologists of the world are suddenly going to stop making reference to animal vectors? Like hell.)
Plus, even brutally banal acronyms tend to find pejorative meanings that suit peoples' impressions of a disease pretty quickly. 'Severe acute respiratory syndrome' does its best to mean nothing; but people were still calling it 'severe asian respiratory syndrome' within days of its announcement. Plus, our supply of 'Novel Something Syndrome' form names is going to dry up real quick once the first one stops being novel and a second one shows up.
Some sort of systematic naming convention, ideally shorter than the causal organism's entire genetic code, would be nice; but informal naming is always kind of a mess and seems unlikely to change.
Third Base!
... is this liberal shit for real? Do they really want to dumb things down?
the Kenyan Plague got elected twice.
maybe they can show the same black guy taking his same helmet off over and over but with different expressions each time?
just like in LOTR when the helicopters show them walking all the fucking time - they should've made them dance and spoon together for warmth.
I'm sure the makers of the diet aid product AYDS wish that were the case 30 years ago.
Generalized metabolic disorder. Formerly known as death.
This PC world is freaking crazy.
As soon as I tell Mr. Acute Amazonian Fungal Bronchitis that he's been left out of this disgusting favoritism and cultural hegemony he's going to lose his @#$!
and...
What if the causal pathogen is named after somebody?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Ebola gets its name from a River in the Republic of Congo
Well it could have been far given a far more offensive then. Imagine if they had called it Republican fever.
Is a disease.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Is E afflicted with condition #8839669 or #8836996 ?
Oh well, the treatment for #8836996 is covered by Eirs medical plan, let's try that one first. Only alternative is to reevaluate patient #113-4551-92130, but that could take months and condition #8839669 is known to be fatal.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
George Carlin is rolling in his grave at this.
I believe the triggering incident here was swine flu, where pigs (owned mainly by christians, since muslims don't eat pork) were slaughtered because of fears of swine flu
So Muslims once again are behaving like ignorant savages. And for that the rest of us should dumb down and obfuscate our language. No. They need to drag themselves out of the seventh century and grow up.
Name diseases after serial/mass killers and cults, with some consideration given to their body counts.
Log in or piss off.
Oh well, the treatment for #8836996 is covered by Eirs medical plan, let's try that one first. Only alternative is to reevaluate patient #113-4551-92130, but that could take months and condition #8839669 is known to be fatal.
No problem. Whisper platitude #17442, cliche #971, and inappropriate emotional appean #9978 to patient #847256. E will then respond with reactions #9716 and #14728(a), assuming of course appropriate funds have been deposited into account #9983774. Otherwise, skip platitude #17442 and go straight to demand #1.
Brought to you buy the numbers 1246789 and the letter a.
How about "PC Syndrome".
Or the 'Politically Correct Disease"?
Best of all, "PC Syndrome". Which is why we are having this discussion.!
What a load of junk. Dear easily offended people:get a life.
Oh, and confirm that they are an organ donor, then get a tissue type made up in case anybody with money needs some of their left over bits
âoeIt will certainly lead to boring names and a lot of confusion,â predicts Linfa Wang, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.
Now that sounds like a bad disease.... I'd hate to tell my wife that I've been diagnosed with a Linfa Wang...
I believe the triggering incident here was swine flu, where pigs (owned mainly by christians, since muslims don't eat pork) were slaughtered because of fears of swine flu
So Muslims once again are behaving like ignorant savages. And for that the rest of us should dumb down and obfuscate our language. No. They need to drag themselves out of the seventh century and grow up.
Pamela Geller derangement syndrome.
This is very rude. Diseases should be name after the molecular weight numbers of the causal agents.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Magoo" said the doctor, "but you've come down with 1291-12-121-124132-1212-121-9342-12. If you have any questions just Wiki that for details."
In Russian Chui means common curse word, basically "d*ck". In Chinese that is a just a name.
So what is it? We have WHO telling not to use certain words? What exactly will it change? Will russkies stop cursing, or Chinese will stop using one of their common last names?
For example, Kanye West Fever, or Donald Trump Syndrome?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
"Eir", not "eirs". You wouldn't say "covered by theirs medical plan", and Spivak pronouns are almost entirely just singular "they" pronouns with the "th" dropped.
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> “It will certainly lead to boring names and a lot of confusion,” predicts Linfa Wang
Aw, now we'll never hear about someone being infected with Wang Fever or the like ....
I don't want to be reminded of either of them.
It's my dystopian fantasy, I get to make the rules.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Yeah, her skirt was so short, the slut was asking for it. Those muslims were just minding their own business in their body armor and assault rifles, and just couldn't help themselves when she was dressed so provocatively.
I do believe I've discovered a disease with the following symptoms:
1) a breakdown of linguistic ability, resulting in a fundamental change from clear concise words intended to convey meaning, to meaningless grunts which confer little or no meaning.
2) randomly taking offense at clear communication
3) decreased capability for higher brain functions (this may indicate susceptibility rather than being a symptom -- studies are inconclusive, not helped by the fact the infected oppose many studies of brain function). For example, certain sounds send them into an uncontrollable rage which their amygdalas are incapable of suppressing.
4) the most dangerous symptom, it appears the infected try to infect others; generally the infected join in large numbers to seek out uninfected brains, primarily using their mouths to spread the disease
5) the earliest symptoms frequently occur soon after a person first experiences the infected's bite, and is self-censorship in an attempt to avoid the sounds which set off the infected's uncontrollable rage. As the disease progresses, the victim inevitably turns on his friends in an attempt to infect them.
On second thought, this disease might terrify others if it were named descriptively. Perhaps it would be better to give it some pleasant-sounding, inoffensive, politically correct name.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Let them use code numbers, they cannot be offensive: sorry, but you have caught a 23-19
...you are HIV Alladeen...
Do you have contempt for Charlie Hebdo as well?
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
It seems the WHO is Patient Zero for a new malady, the Bureaucratic Busy-Body Butinsky Syndrome. Which I hereby christen "Whobola".
What about renaming political correctness disease to something less offensive, or at least more accurate?
stop victim blaming. when the right does it, its a problem. when the left does it....crickets?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I'm a cricket, you insensitive clod!
And I am British so I enjoy me a game of cricket, racist.
Or at least, it shouldn't be. It's about unfortunate implications. Like swine flu was a fine excuse for the Egyptian government to slaughter all the pigs still in the country. Being a predominantly muslim country, it's easy to see why they wanted that. The thing is, all the swine herds were owned by Copts. That makes it an act of political repression, made possible by really only the name of the disease.
Hello Mr. Meval you've contracted a bad case of Q9fPfmk2roBWZuQqjeCFf2xfInOWtzMeuXvyVP8PtSeq6sgDU60kkLY6bQ13MT4k and we will have to use antibiotic R1rMzq5rM6 for at least six weeks. Please make your check payable to the l18O5pQQDAQDAXAesU56 medical clinic of Medina
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
name the diseases after fictional characters? Name diseases after Palpatine, Cartman, Wile E. Coyote etc. etc. Instantly recognizeable, no feelings get hurt. And personally I vote to rename Ebola to Nurgle's disease!
sooo, in an event of a new version of aids propagating like de flu, it would be bad to call it something like... super nigro aids zimmerman edition
got it
Those unwilling to submit and guilty of crimethink will be sentenced to joycamps until they achieve crimestop. Resisting authority is doubleplusungood. There is no ownlife.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was named after the scientists who discovered it. As a doctor/scientist I don't see how that would be offensive. You don't see astronomers getting upset when someone names a comet after them. Mr. & Mrs. Shoemaker you would hang your heads in disgrace if you could see the mess your chunk of rock/ice made on Jupiter. You too, David Levy.
If anyone should be pissed it should be Charles Bell and Augustus Waller. They described and studied what would become known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the 1800s but then some celebrity gets involved 65 years later and who do they name it after?
In order to foster a more uniform environment for the group known formally as 'The Party', we would do well to adopt the Newspeak Dictionary as well as the Newspeak Medical Dictionary.
World Health Organization total bunch of idiots!
Using "good" words instead of "bad" words just causes the innocent good words to -become- bad. Look up "euphemism" !
Many modern bad words -are- the good words of a few years ago. Look up what they used before those. And consider the word "Special" as a pejorative.
On the other hand, there is no need to be rude if you can avoid it...