And just like that, “monkeypox” is dubbed racist.
The World Health Organization declared it would rename the monkeypox virus after scientists feared that its name and African origins would result in a stigma. It’s a story that sounds more like a comedy sketch than real life.
“WHO is also working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades, and the disease it causes,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director-general. “We will make an announcement about the new names as soon as possible.”
What’s next, renaming chickenpox for fear of offending the people in countries that butcher poultry in wet markets?
Scientists first discussed this issue in a document entitled “Urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature for monkeypox virus.” Twenty-nine scientists claimed that the “continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
Additionally, they took issue with the photos used in the media to depict the lesions of the virus.
“The most obvious manifestation of this is the use of photos of African patients to depict the pox lesions in mainstream media in the global north,” the scientists stated. “Recently, Foreign Press Association, Africa issued a statement urging the global media to stop using images of African people to highlight the outbreak in Europe.”
“By supporting a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing classification, we can encourage African and other researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to advance genomic surveillance, share sequence data, and minimize negative impacts,” the scientists declared. “Failure to support and adopt the proposed nomenclature and classification may result in loss of interest in sustaining active surveillance and rapid reporting of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potentials, by scientists and national public health institutions in Africa and other LMICs.”
They concluded that a “practical and neutral system of nomenclature allows efficient communication without the risk of further misconceptions, discrimination, and stigmatization.” Additionally, they claimed that continuing to call it monkeypox is “counter to the best practice of avoiding geographic locations in the nomenclature of diseases and disease groups.”
Yet the history of the monkeypox virus details why it is appropriately named. It was first discovered in a monkey at a research facility in Denmark in 1958. And pertaining to its African origins, the first known human case was identified in 1970, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Furthermore, the WHO, which requested the name change, lists the only two known clades of monkeypox, and both come from Africa: the Congo Basin region and West Africa. Additionally, while the 29 scientists emphasized that the current outbreak is in non-African countries, the WHO specifically stated, “All cases in newly affected countries whose samples were confirmed by PCR have been identified as being infected with the West African clade.”
Scientists being “concerned” about a virus being associated with Africa that originated from Africa, with the only two known clades of its existence coming from Africa, is indicative of the petty semantics of contemporary science. It’s sanctimonious drivel and, ultimately, not important in any way.
The rationalization for this change is absurd. It’s yet another sign that the intelligentsia prioritizes the nonsensical over the logical. This is a concern that only the literati and aristocratic class could come up with. And, on the off chance these concerns are valid, the geniuses who inspired this decision just brought more attention to the disease and its origins, causing the very thing they claimed to be against.
