[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

It hasn't been fine since 2015 when the decision was made not to name viruses after their origin:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/...pdf?sequence=1


https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/28/us/di...rnd/index.html

I've linked the CNN article you linked already as part of my argument. And the WHO's decision was specifically on identifying the virus's name completely based on origin to avoid stigmatism. Ebola, West Nile and Zika are other examples of origin based names. And I did state historically, the change is very recent.

Ultimately, the name used became an issue addressed by the media (and they used the origin consistently regardless of the WHO recommendation) in March 2020 only once Trump said it and the media tried to steer itself away from him, suddenly having self declared an epiphany.

Google link for hundreds of "Wuhan coronavirus" news articles from predominant MSM sources prior to Trump's "China virus" comment.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22w...2F2020&tbm=nws

More than 2,100 people have died from the Wuhan coronavirus,

Canada has confirmed its first Wuhan coronavirus case in Toronto

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/healt...-bn/index.html

Wuhan coronavirus is not yet a public health emergency of international concern, WHO says

CNN goes to ground zero of Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China 02:45
(CNN)The Wuhan coronavirus does not yet constitute a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization announced Thursday.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/29/china...cli/index.html

The memory of SARS looms over the Wuhan virus. Here's how the outbreaks compare

Again, the media shift on the term was purely of political convenience, and not because of some social conscience shift.

Wuhan coronavirus as a name is just as fine as identifying B.1.1.7 as the british variant. Someone calling it the Wuhan coronavirus in itself based is not racist, and the faux outrage on a name that identifies its origin that was perfectly acceptable in Feb 2020 but not March 2020 (yet variants can still be sourced to its origin) is really what is embarrassing.

BTW, the WHO itself identified and published the term "Wuhan coronavirus" on its website. It was perfectly fine to use Jan 18 2020 as part of diagnostic detection protocol.

https://www.who.int/nepal/activities.../protocol-v2-1

Diagnostic detection of Wuhan coronavirus 2019 by real-time RT-PCR – Charité, Berlin Germany (pdf)