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News & ArtsThursday, April 30, 2009
Snoutbreak Um, That's Not Helping, Egypt (or, Why the W.H.O Wants to Rename the Flu)
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 11:52 AM
GENEVA — The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu..."Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said.
"H1N1 influenza A"? I dunno, Dick. That's a lot less catchy.
(Best use of the word "swine" in American literary history? Dorothy Parker is heading into the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, right as Clare Boothe Luce is walking in. Parker is a theater critic at the time. Luce (wife of Time/Life/Fortune publisher Henry Luce) is a playwright. "Age before beauty, my dear," Luce says cruelly and steps aside. Parker legendarily does not miss a beat. "Pearls before swine!" she says, and pushes through the revolving door.)
1
Wow. All governments seem to care about is doing PR for the corpse industry.
It's not "SWINE FLU" -- it's "PIG FLU" or "PORK FLU." This outbreak/pandemic was caused by the harvesting of pig corpses (or "pork") for consumption. "Bacon flu" is also acceptable.
It's not "SWINE FLU" -- it's "PIG FLU" or "PORK FLU." This outbreak/pandemic was caused by the harvesting of pig corpses (or "pork") for consumption. "Bacon flu" is also acceptable.
5
Egypt is apparently run by the characters of the movie "Idiocracy"...Only a matter of time before they start irrigating their crops with Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator.
6
Typically flu's are named after the location where they originated (though North American Flu would be a tough sell in this case...)
As for Egypt, this is a thinly veiled political maneuver by a majority Muslim population that takes rights away from the minority Coptic Christian population (who raise pigs on the streets of Cairo, offending more conservative elements amongst the Muslim population).
It would be akin to if Conservative Christians had passed anti-abortion legislation because there was an "Aborted-Fetus" Flu that had nothing to do with abortions (strange analogy, sure, but I think it makes sense). Obviously it's not an effective anti pandemic manuever, but it is a tidy way to accomplish an otherwise unseemly political goal.
LOL EGYPTsoCRAZY is not what's going on here.
As for Egypt, this is a thinly veiled political maneuver by a majority Muslim population that takes rights away from the minority Coptic Christian population (who raise pigs on the streets of Cairo, offending more conservative elements amongst the Muslim population).
It would be akin to if Conservative Christians had passed anti-abortion legislation because there was an "Aborted-Fetus" Flu that had nothing to do with abortions (strange analogy, sure, but I think it makes sense). Obviously it's not an effective anti pandemic manuever, but it is a tidy way to accomplish an otherwise unseemly political goal.
LOL EGYPTsoCRAZY is not what's going on here.
7
So, stop it now, do wish they call it swine/pork/bacon flu again, so people in Egypt start slaughtering pigs again? I thought you were for animal rights.
11
#7, I'm for basic animal rights like most Americans, but I haven't posted anything about animal rights and don't feel too strongly either way. I do feel strongly that people who eat animal carcasses should be called out and shamed (at the very least) for killing innocent people through their selfish and grotesque actions.
13
But it's not scary because it's H1N1 influenza A. It's scarry becuase it's a new form of H1N1 influenza reassorted in a PIG and newly introduced to humans.
Plus the WHO really needs to explain something. When avian flu was a worry they slaughtered chickens by the millions. So now that it's swine flu, why wouldn't we do the same with pigs? These people aren't being irrational. The WHO simply hasn't been clear in explaining their inconsistency.
Plus the WHO really needs to explain something. When avian flu was a worry they slaughtered chickens by the millions. So now that it's swine flu, why wouldn't we do the same with pigs? These people aren't being irrational. The WHO simply hasn't been clear in explaining their inconsistency.
14
@11
Grotesque is a really good album by The Fall. Check it out. My favorite track is New Face in Hell. Be sure to let me know yours! TTYL!
Grotesque is a really good album by The Fall. Check it out. My favorite track is New Face in Hell. Be sure to let me know yours! TTYL!
15
@13 - Chickens were slaughtered in hopes of preventing the avian flu virus from jumping species and becoming infective in humans. The slaughtered chickens were carrying the strain of the virus that infected humans who handled poultry, but did not yet jump from human to human. The H1N1 has already become infective among humans who have no contact with swine, so slaughtering the species in which the virus originally reassorted serves no purpose whatsoever.
16
OK, I'll take the bait, re: @11:
I, on the other hand, feel strongly that people who feel strongly that "people who eat animal carcasses should be called out and shamed (at the very least) for killing innocent people through their selfish and grotesque actions" should themselves be shamed (at the very least) for their selfish and grotesque assholier-than-thou-ness.
I, on the other hand, feel strongly that people who feel strongly that "people who eat animal carcasses should be called out and shamed (at the very least) for killing innocent people through their selfish and grotesque actions" should themselves be shamed (at the very least) for their selfish and grotesque assholier-than-thou-ness.
18
@15,
I agree, now that it has jumped to humans, and is highly contagious between humans, it is just as much a human flu as it is a swine flu.
I agree, now that it has jumped to humans, and is highly contagious between humans, it is just as much a human flu as it is a swine flu.
19
Fuck the "swine flu", which will clearly only affect the capitalist running dogs (er, pigs - "two legs good...&c.") and their arse-snuffling lackeys. Us poor folk have more serious concerns. To wit:
We should much more worried about imminent Wine Flu, about which I find myself greatly unsettled by the chance that the French will ceremoniously dump millions of gallons of Bordeaux into their famous sewers in an effort to curb that pandemic.
Pandemonium indeed! I'm stocking up now.
We should much more worried about imminent Wine Flu, about which I find myself greatly unsettled by the chance that the French will ceremoniously dump millions of gallons of Bordeaux into their famous sewers in an effort to curb that pandemic.
Pandemonium indeed! I'm stocking up now.
20
Dude. Who puts the punchline in bold? Way to diminish a great anecdote by pulling the eye to the last line before getting through the set-up.
21
In a country that's majority Muslim and growing increasingly conservative, why are there that many pigs? Copts don't make up that big a portion of the population.
22
@19: any Bordeaux that ends up in the gutters of Paris would never have made it to a wine shop near you in the first place. The wine lake is mostly horrid industrial wine that the government pays them trillions to distill into industrial alcohol and THEN pour out. They're just cutting out the middleman.
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