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Medicine

WHO Has Finally Named the New Coronavirus (sciencealert.com) 125

Posted by BeauHD from the public-service-announcement dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ScienceAlert: The UN health agency on Tuesday announced that "COVID-19" will be the official name of the deadly virus from China, saying the disease represented a "very grave threat" for the world but there was a "realistic chance" of stopping it. "We now have a name for the disease and it's COVID-19," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva. Tedros said that "co" stands for "corona", "vi" for "virus" and "d" for "disease", while "19" was for the year, as the outbreak was first identified on 31 December.

Tedros said the name had been chosen to avoid references to a specific geographical location, animal species or group of people in line with international recommendations for naming aimed at preventing stigmatization. WHO had earlier given the virus the temporary name of "2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease" and China's National Health Commission this week said it was temporarily calling it "novel coronavirus pneumonia" or NCP. Under a set of guidelines issued in 2015, WHO advises against using place names such as Ebola and Zika -- where those diseases were first identified and which are now inevitably linked to them in the public mind. More general names such as "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome" or "Spanish flu" are also now avoided as they can stigmatize entire regions or ethnic groups. WHO also notes that using animal species in the name can create confusion, such as in 2009 when H1N1 was popularly referred to as "swine flu." This had a major impact on the pork industry even though the disease was being spread by people rather than pigs.
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WHO Has Finally Named the New Coronavirus More

WHO Has Finally Named the New Coronavirus

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  • the disease was being spread by people rather than pigs.

    How many pictures of what people do on an airplane to their fellow passengers or how they keep their home or videos of people throwing trash from their moving cars are needed to show people are pigs.

  • Haven't we solved this? There for storms there is an existing list of names and when a new severe hurricane forms we pick a name from the list at random. Why let's do the same for viruses. Sucks if your name is picked (e.g. Katrina Virus) but it seems like the best system we have so far.

  • Politicians, not doctors. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by biggaijin ( 126513 ) on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @08:29PM (#59721826)

    Once again, the WHO has demonstrated that its main purposes are political, not medical. I have heard three things from them: 1. Wash your hands. OK. 2. International travel should not be constrained "too much" because it will hurt commerce. True, but irrelevant in the general sense. 3. We have to give the virus a politically correct name so no group or country is blamed for the disease. Nonsense. These people should be focused on containing the virus and protecting the world's population, not spewing politically correct booshwa. Immunologists have known how to do this for well over 100 years, but today's political climate is putting all of us at risk.

    • Re:Politicians, not doctors. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @08:43PM (#59721898)

      I heard 1 thing from the WHO.

      Wow, China is really handling this so well. It's a global pandemic but really, China's response has been amazing. They're super transparent, too. We had to get special permission before we could go in and look around, and we're only allowed to go into areas they want us to go into, but they're so transparent. They won't let others, like people from the US, in to inspect, but let's all thank China for going to such great lengths to be transparent and to stop this virus. But let's not ban travel, because even though this is a pandemic that might hurt China's trade. And really, they're doing such a great job we shouldn't be mean to them.

      You think I'm joking or trolling? Watch it yourself. https://youtu.be/8NnNunRXR80 [youtu.be]

      FUCK the WHO.

      • Re:Politicians, not doctors. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @09:25PM (#59722050)

        Good. The WHO is an international health organization. Their job is to deal with difficult nations (which is most of them) to accomplish a health related goal. If getting access and cooperation requires diplomacy and fluffing some national egos, good on them for not letting stupid ideals get in the way.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Meanwhile in Hubei... 14,000+ new cases. 200+ new deaths in the last 24 hours.

        Fuck China. Fuck WHO. Fuck China that's who.

        • 200+ new deaths in the last 24 hours.

          And how many deaths from other kinds of flu in China? (China is a lot of people)

          How many deaths from other kinds of flu in in the USA?

          And exactly what do YOU think the WHO could do better than quote the advice of the best available doctors from the rest of the world?

          Think - if/when it happens in the USA, exactly what will Trump say when the WHO tells him what doctors tell them is the best thing to do?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fenrif ( 991024 )

            I think the WHO could look past the chinese propoganda and actually deal with the realities of the situation instead of jumping at the chance to puff up china for some sweet cold hard cash.

          • Re:Politicians, not doctors. (Score:5, Insightful)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Thursday February 13, 2020 @05:08AM (#59722914)

            200+ new deaths in the last 24 hours.

            And how many deaths from other kinds of flu in China? (China is a lot of people)

            How many deaths from other kinds of flu in in the USA?

            And exactly what do YOU think the WHO could do better than quote the advice of the best available doctors from the rest of the world?

            Think - if/when it happens in the USA, exactly what will Trump say when the WHO tells him what doctors tell them is the best thing to do?

            Here''s reason for the name.

            First, "novel Coronavirus 2019" or "nCoV-2019" is a mouthful. COVID-2019 is much easier.

            Second, coronavirus is common. Besides Covid-2019, we have SARS and the common cold. (Rhinovirus is another type of common cold as well, so just because you have a cold, doesn't meant it's from just a coronavirus). Thus, you can pretty much truthfully say millions of Americans have the coronavirus, because they do.

            So that's why we have nice names because we want to identify which strain we're talking about. Imagine if you got a cold and your doctor said you have a coronavirus. In this current time, that's not a very nice diagnosis now, is it? Especially since you probably have a cold.

            Influenza right now is running rampant. The CDC is estimating (because not everyone with the flu sees a doctor) around 20-30 million Americans have or had influenza. And somewhere between 10-30,000 people have died. These are numbers based on reports, so the actual number is likely higher - not everyone sick with flu went to the doctor so the CDC doesn't get numbers, and not everyone who dies could be reliably traced to the flu.

            Remember China has over 4 times the population of the US. so the numbers for influenza should be much higher.

            Source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/... [cdc.gov]

            Humans prize novelty. It's why 9/11 is a disaster despite more people dying in traffic daily, or why Covid-2019 is scary despite influenza having killed way more people the past few months 200 people probably died from the flu today in the US alone, and 200 more will die tomorrow and so on.

            • New viruses like COVID2019 deserve such a strong response, because we just might get the cat back in the bag, If Influenza were a new relatively contained virus, I am sure we'd go through incredible lengths to contain it ASAP as well. The often touted "so what? influenza kills more!" disregards that COVID2019, once established in the general population, would be killing IN ADDITION to influenza, so it is essential to contain and if possible eradicate it now at the beginning.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          Typical terrible reporting. There's not "14000 new cases"; they changed their diagnostic standard to now include "suspected" cases, where they don't have PCR confirmation of the virus, but an X-ray confirms the virus's symptoms.

          • Re:Politicians, not doctors. (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Rei ( 128717 ) on Thursday February 13, 2020 @07:39AM (#59723186) Homepage

            It should be noted that this is the standard that's been used outside Hubei, but Hubei had been using the more strict standard to play down the numbers. The party shuffled up the leadership recently, which undoubtedly is what led to this change in reporting.

            Also interesting is that they've broken down the numbers within Hubei for the first time, and it's remarkable how much this is not specifically just a China problem, and not specifically just a Hubei problem, but specifically a Wuhan problem. While the overwhelming majority of China's cases are in Hubei, the overwhelming majority of Hubei's cases are in Wuhan (despite it only making up 1/5th of the population).

            Quarantining the city of Wuhan "early on" was a hugely important decision. I put that in quotes because Wuhan got so infected because they ignored the disease for so long.

            • Quarantining the city of Wuhan "early on" was a hugely important decision.

              People should know that while the measures needed to enforce a strict quarantine are not pleasant to think about, and even less pleasant to experience firsthand, they are eminently necessary in order to prevent this from killing 50 million (as the 1918 pandemic did).

      • China prioritizes preventing panic over preventing pandemic. It's partially the fault of how an autocratic government works, and partially a difference in Eastern versus Western views on the importance of order and civil behavior. (e.g. in Western culture we don't think it's a big deal when people are panicking, we can always tear gas them and truncheon them a bit to give to set a panicked crowd's priorities correctly)

        • Preventing panic can actually be very useful in preventing a pandemic. What do you think people will do if you quarantine their town because there are infected inside and they know that the transmission rate is insanely high along with the fatality? Do you think they will calmly stay in the area?

    • Itâ(TM)s nothing to do with giving it a politically correct name, itâ(TM)s giving it a technically accurate name that will not spread misinformation, but that will be short and catchy enough that people use.

      If you give it a name that has names of animals or countries in it, people make assumptions about the disease based on the name, and the actual on the ground response to the disease gets affected by those assumptions.

    • Smaller point, but they've also gone with a 2-digit year. Who designed that system and have they learned nothing from Y2K?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      We have to give the virus a politically correct name

      That was *my* first thought too. Having a disease named after you is an honour, like Huntington's, Down's syndrome or Lou Gherigs.

      But then so many pig farmers went broke because idiots thought they could get swine flu from pork. And what if AIDS was called "San Francisco disease" or "American Immune Deficiency Syndrome", from where it was first identified? Sound OK?
      And it is not just diseases that have unfortunate associations. Just ask anyone from Lesbos or Crete.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by makomk ( 752139 )

      Very much so. There's some reason to suspect that the WHO rushed this name out now in order to prevent another name for it, which is politically inconvenient for China due to the fact that it reminds people of the last time they screwed this up [sciencemag.org], from catching on in the press.

    • Once again, the WHO has demonstrated that its main purposes are political, not medical.

      No. Once against the WHO has demonstrated that they aren't singularly focused on something to the point of derangement. Medical conditions affect people, as does stigma. It's bad enough that a virus is killing people without having an additional stigma associated with the place it was first discovered.

      Every job is political. With every thing you say and do there are knock on effects, expectations and subtext. As a singular person you can ignore it and let people think of you what they will. As an internatio

    • The WHO may have initially been fooled by china's infection numbers, but HEAYY, They won't get fooled again!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by njvack ( 646524 )

      We have to give the virus a politically correct name so no group or country is blamed for the disease. Nonsense.

      The reason you don't name viruses after groups or countries is because no one wants to have a disease named after their homeland, so they try to hide it. This isn't about not offending people, it's about seeing how people have reacted in past epidemics and trying to incentivize them to be more helpful in current and future ones.

      Disease response depends on getting accurate information from frightened people and countries in as fast a manner as possible and forming a realistic response; part of this is reduci

  • SARS - Southern Asia Respiratory Syndrome MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome WARS - Wuhan Acute Respiratory Syndrome But I guess we donâ(TM)t want to call it that because this outbreak may actually lead to war...

    • What's wrong with stigmatizing? For that matter, what is racist about pointing out that people in a certain region have filthy and ignorant habits that spread disease such as defecating and spitting in the streets, eating bats, etc?

      It's past time to scold, rebuke and educate the ignorant and their filthy habits that cause major diseases each and every year across the globe.

      • Now I'm confused, are they filthy and ignorant habits? Or ignorant and filthy habits?

        • Perhaps 'filthy habits born of ignorance' would be better phrasing? Being more hygienic and educated would mean less death for them, yet people are called racist who want longer and healthier lives for those people.

          • You're not racist for wanting longer and healthier lives for people, you're racist for calling them filthy and ignorant. You should own that. Go buy yourself a tiki torch and rant in the street about the Chinese.
            • Ignorance is lack of knowledge, nothing negative about it unless you choose to remain ignorant, and being ignorant of hygienic practices does end up making you filthy. Go cry wolf somewhere else.
            • People who call people "racists" tend to be the more bigoted of them all.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Cederic ( 9623 )

        I saw nobody in China defecating in the street, or even spitting in the street. As for eating mammals, that's common to every country and culture on the planet.

        Which is exactly what's wrong with stigmatising. It lets ignorant cunts feel justified in spouting utter fucking nonsense, instead of trying to understand actual underlying causes and addressing those.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Ambvai ( 1106941 )

      SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as evidenced here: https://www.who.int/csr/sars/e... [who.int]

  • It should have been 'Dotard-45'...
  • Do you mean Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend?

  • 2019 novel coronavirus
    SARS-CoV-2
    2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease
    COVID-19
    novel coronavirus pneumonia

  • I wonder when YouTube will add COVID-19 support?

    They should've named it the Mexican Beer Virus, or MBV for short.

  • Everyone is just going to call it the Wuhan coronavirus anyway, but Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Wow, what a name!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      When a novel disease emerged in the picturesque university town of Marburg Germany they were on pretty safe ground naming its cause "Marburg Virus".

      Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, a region with 58 million people with a pig herd that normally runs around 40 million hogs plus God only knows how many ducks -- which are the enzootic reservoir for a variety of viruses that infect humans. This is not the last virus we're going to see emerge from this city, and they aren't all going to be coronaviruses ei

      • Just name them Wuhan1, Wuhan2, Wuhan3... What's wrong with adding numbers to the underlying system? It worked for the space missions.

        • Or maybe Wuhan, Toohoo, Toree

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hey! ( 33014 )

          I'll tell you what's wrong with that system: it will lead people to think that those viruses are *related*. And humans being humans, they'll figure out really stupid things to believe with that misconception.

          • They think that anyway. It's a disease that makes you sneeze and it's from China. Add a dash of internet and the next conspiracy theory is ready for release.

            Funny enough that these things spread like diseases, too, but there's no cure. Sadly, though, it's also nonlethal.

    • Pretty sure it's the China Virus dude

  • They took 3 weeks to name a disease. Incompetent.

    Chances of that name catching on instead of Coronavirus = 0.

    Even then, chances of people using COVID-19 instead of COVID = 0.

  • Beer brewers rejoice (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Wednesday February 12, 2020 @09:11PM (#59722010) Journal

    It is now safe to drink Corona Beer.

  • People would use and remember that.

  • It's so pathetic how the WHO is in the pocket of the CCP.

  • This is too much diplomacy over medicine ...

    Why is the Marburg virus [wikipedia.org], Ebola [wikipedia.org], Rift Valley fever [wikipedia.org] and other diseases named after their places of the first outbreak? Even the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as recently as 2015 implies a place of origin.

    How about making the name based on symptoms (e.g. SARS, MERS), then the virus named after family and year?

  • Shame, because Kung Flu is quite catchy.

    • Yeah, but what are you gonna do the next time around when China is the source of the next outbreak?

      Then again, you could do sequels. Worked well for various movies of the genre. Worked even if they had nothing to do with each other whatsoever.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by enitime ( 964946 )

        Yeah, but what are you gonna do the next time around when China is the source of the next outbreak?

        Then again, you could do sequels. Worked well for various movies of the genre. Worked even if they had nothing to do with each other whatsoever.

        Kung Flu 2 : Electric Booger Flu

  • Back in the day, Corona was the mid range Toyota

  • Call a hat a hat. If my parents die because of this fucking bat virus, I'm going to blame president fuckface Xi. China created this problem. They can get the blame.

  • I still prefer the wu-tang-flu

  • COVID-19 is the disease you get by being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    AIDS is what you get by being infected with HIV.

    They give the name of the disease to the virus and the named the virus with a old disease name.

    Got it? Good.

  • An affront to royal headgear everywhere! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by flatulus ( 260854 ) on Thursday February 13, 2020 @02:30AM (#59722716)
    What about "corona"? aka crown. Pretty insensitive to nobility everywhere if you ask me.

    You have to be VERY careful when you endeavor to offend nobody. Reminds me of the kerfufffle over the Washington Redskins. Nobody seemed to notice that we have a state named INDIANA! How can people be so insensitive?
  • Am I the only one seeing the reference to the Dark Tower?

  • Actually, this isn't bad (Score:3)

    by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Thursday February 13, 2020 @07:01AM (#59723106)
    They picked a name which is relatively free of namespace collisions (the only match I could find was a manufacturer of video cables [eriksoncommercial.com]). Appending the year to the name makes it easier to keep track of which one is which, as well as the relative position of different outbreaks in time (I couldn't put SARS and MERS in chronological order without googling them, so it must be even worse for researchers who have to deal with virus samples from less notable outbreaks in multiple years). And if they really want, they still have the option of giving a more memorable name to any viruses which end up turning into global pandemics like the Spanish Flu, instead of near-misses like SARS and MERS.

    • They picked a name which is relatively free of namespace collisions

      Humans love overloading variables, it’s literally been a tradition across variable cultures and centuries.

  • The fact of where a disease originates and is most widespread is significant and relevant. The discomfort of living in a place where this has happened is not.

    Have any Coloradans or Utahans suffered tangible and irreparable psychological damage because of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever? Is Zaire really losing business because a disease bears its name (does anyone remember it)? Would Wuhan really carry a permanent stigma after the outbreak has passed?

    No, of course not. And even if a place does bear a p

    • The fact of where a disease originates and is most widespread is significant and relevant.

      Nonsense.
      Years from now if it's like flu and everywhere. What difference will it make where the first case was noticed?
      If it spreads to a country with even worse healthcare, that will quickly become where it is more widespread.

      Using the name of the outbreak's location imparts useful information.

      No it doesn't. You think it will get renamed every place if takes a foothold and becomes self sustaining?

      This Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama seems like a safe place to hide, it's nowhere near Wuhan, what could go wrong?

  • the name had been chosen to avoid references to a specific geographical location, animal species or group of people in line with international recommendations for naming aimed at preventing stigmatization

    Well then, guess I'll be referring to it as the Wuhan Chinese Bat-eating Virus.

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