Naming Viruses After Their Places of Origin

Dateline: Apr. 20, 2020

Perhaps it would be illuminating to do a cursory examination of the major viruses over the past 100 years. Consider these:

• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - 1906, first identified in the Rocky Mountain states
• Spanish Flu - 1918, first observed in Europe, the United States, and parts of Asia.
• West Nile Virus - 1937, first isolated from the West Nile district of Northern Uganda
• Zika Virus - 1947, first isolated in the Zika Forest of Uganda
• Asian Flu - 1957-58 - originated in Guizhou, China
• Hong Kong Flu - 1968-69, first record of the outbreak was in Hong Kong
• Lyme Disease - Early 1970s, diagnosed in a group of children and adults in Lyme, Connecticut
• Ebola virus - 1976, first identified in the Congo near the Ebola River
• Hantavirus - 1978, first found in field mice near the Hantan River in South Korea
• Bird Flu - 1997, the first known cases were due to an outbreak of avian influenza A virus subtype H5N1 in poultry in Hong Kong
• SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) - 2003, first tracked to southeastern China, near Hong Kong
• MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) - 2012, first reported in Saudi Arabia

By way of contrast, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in May 2015 decided to promote the use of generic names for infectious diseases. When the current corona virus was allowed to escape from the Virology Institute in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the W.H.O. promoted the name, COVID-19, "to avoid stigmatizing a country or particular group." This euphemism was one aspect of the W.H.O.'s efforts to help the Chinese Communist Party cover up the real source of this deadly virus and cover up the initial cover up. The cover story was to blame it on wild animals being sold as food in the Wuhan "wet market."

In reaction to all this, none other than the darling of the Left, Bill Maher, made the following remarks about the pandemic on his HBO show on Friday April 10, 2020. He criticized the hypocritical behavior of the mainstream media. Maher's remarks were reported in the web news service, The Hill.

"Scientists, who are generally pretty liberal, have been naming diseases after the places they came from for a very long time," Maher said Friday night while broadcasting his weekly show from his home in California.

"Zika is from the Zika Forest, Ebola from the Ebola River, Hantavirus the Hantan River," he added. "There's the West Nile virus and Guinea worm and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and, of course, the Spanish flu."

"Sorry, Americans. We're going to have to ask you to keep two ideas in your head at the same time: This has nothing to do with Asian Americans, and it has everything to do with China," Maher concluded. "We can't afford the luxury anymore of nonjudginess towards a country with habits that kill millions of people everywhere because this isn't the first time. SARS came from China and the bird flu and the Hong Kong flu, the Asian flu. Viruses come from China just like shortstops come from the Dominican Republic. If they were selling nuclear suitcases at these wet markets, would we be so nonjudgmental?"

The full 5 1/2 minute Bill Maher video can be viewed on the New York Post web site.

A Fox News article by Brett Baier on April 15, 2020 opened with this headline:
"Sources believe coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan lab as part of China's efforts to compete with US"

The article opened with:
"EXCLUSIVE: There is increasing confidence that the COVID-19 outbreak likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of China's attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States, multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by China's government and seen relevant materials tell Fox News."

The Washington Post on April 14, 2020 published a story about details in a diplomatic cable dated Jan. 19, 2018, which stated, "During interactions with scientists at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory," It was written by two officials from the embassy's environment, science and health sections who met with the WIV scientists.

Based on all this evidence, it appears to be quite appropriate to call it the Chinese Corona Virus or the Wuhan Corona Virus since that's where it originated. One might even get more specific and call it the Chinese Communist Party Corona Virus since they are responsible for letting it get out of control and infecting the whole world.

In summary, it is of historical value to know where and when these diseases originated, and what actions the local or regional governments took to control and eliminate the disease. But it is of no value to broadly blame all members of an ethnic or national group for a specific disease. For example, it is contemptible to show blame or hostility toward people in San Francisco's Chinatown for what happened in Wuhan.

As Bill Maher concluded, it is fair to hold the Chinese government responsible for this pandemic that sickened thousands of their own people, infected over two million people around the world, cost the lives of over 150,000, and threw millions of people in over 200 countries out of work around the globe.

To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo (the "I Love Lucy" TV show), "China, you got some 'splainin' to do."