[teejers1]

to 2006 Alum, because providing a geographic name is a factual indicator that helps people associate virus with origin.  Is there something wrong with that?  

For example, if there was some virus that broke out from a Stanford lab or something and it was colloquially called "the Stanford virus," would you have a problem with that?  If so, why?  

Trying to find nefarious intent in everything must get so tiresome.  And btw, this has nothing to do with the occupant of the WH who has clustered the federal response to a fare thee well.

P.S.  To your "reverse question," I'd have the same response - why can't those be called by geographic origins, too?  They can have "generally accepted scientific names," too, but there is nothing "wrong" with giving virus's more readily associative names, at least from this angle.

This is really simple.  Associating the virus with China is causing Asians to be discriminated against and even assaulted.  You have stated nothing in support of using China or Wuhan that comes even close to that in terms of importance.  It comes down to common courtesy.  If I am doing something that is or even could be causing others harm and I have easy alternatives to doing that thing, I should take the easy alternative and not risk harming others.  

To make it clear that this is really happening I offer an incident that recently happened to my across-the-street neighbor.  She is Asian and regularly walks her dog around the block.  I do the same with my dog and we often see each other.  I saw her the other day and she told me that she was afraid to walk her dog because a few weeks ago, someone driving by in a car started yelling something to her about being Chinese.  She hurried back to her house and is now in fear every time she leaves her home.  She had never had anything like this happen before.  This did not happen in some backwater, we live in a nice area in San Francisco.  If we can all just use the scientifically accepted name for COVID19, it could help to start to minimize discrimination such as this.  Even the President seems to have stopped calling it the China or Wuhan virus.  There is nothing to be gained by it and a great deal to be lost.

Cheers,
Pete F.

"If we just tell everyone COVID, COVID, COVID, they will never know where this virus originated, and then we'll all be better off."  Hey, let's just call it "the Springtime Virus!"  That has a happy connotation.

Look, I'm actually with BC in not caring what it's called.  What I find astounding, however, is the insistence by many - including here - that referring to it as the Wuhan Virus must be some nefarious plot to either discriminate against people from China or support President's Trump effort to call it "the China virus."  Um . . . no.  It can just be an acceptance of the geographic origination . . . and nothing more.  Really.

And Pete, the story about your neighbor is shameful.  But I live in an area with a brobdingnagian Asian influence (I suspect, but don't know, many are from China), and have neither seen nor read about anything like that going on.  Let's hope your example is the way-on-the-fringe-outlier.

[teejers1]

to 2006 Alum, because providing a geographic name is a factual indicator that helps people associate virus with origin.  Is there something wrong with that?  

For example, if there was some virus that broke out from a Stanford lab or something and it was colloquially called "the Stanford virus," would you have a problem with that?  If so, why?  

Trying to find nefarious intent in everything must get so tiresome.  And btw, this has nothing to do with the occupant of the WH who has clustered the federal response to a fare thee well.

P.S.  To your "reverse question," I'd have the same response - why can't those be called by geographic origins, too?  They can have "generally accepted scientific names," too, but there is nothing "wrong" with giving virus's more readily associative names, at least from this angle.

This is really simple.  Associating the virus with China is causing Asians to be discriminated against and even assaulted.  You have stated nothing in support of using China or Wuhan that comes even close to that in terms of importance.  It comes down to common courtesy.  If I am doing something that is or even could be causing others harm and I have easy alternatives to doing that thing, I should take the easy alternative and not risk harming others.  

To make it clear that this is really happening I offer an incident that recently happened to my across-the-street neighbor.  She is Asian and regularly walks her dog around the block.  I do the same with my dog and we often see each other.  I saw her the other day and she told me that she was afraid to walk her dog because a few weeks ago, someone driving by in a car started yelling something to her about being Chinese.  She hurried back to her house and is now in fear every time she leaves her home.  She had never had anything like this happen before.  This did not happen in some backwater, we live in a nice area in San Francisco.  If we can all just use the scientifically accepted name for COVID19, it could help to start to minimize discrimination such as this.  Even the President seems to have stopped calling it the China or Wuhan virus.  There is nothing to be gained by it and a great deal to be lost.

Cheers,
Pete F.

"If we just tell everyone COVID, COVID, COVID, they will never know where this virus originated, and then we'll all be better off."  Hey, let's just call it "the Springtime Virus!"  That has a happy connotation.

Look, I'm actually with BC in not caring what it's called.  What I find astounding, however, is the insistence by many - including here - that referring to it as the Wuhan Virus must be some nefarious plot to either discriminate against people from China or support President's Trump effort to call it "the China virus."  Um . . . no.  It can just be an acceptance of the geographic origination . . . and nothing more.  Really.

And Pete, the story about your neighbor is shameful.  But I live in an area with a brobdingnagian Asian influence (I suspect, but don't know, many are from China), and have neither seen nor read about anything like that going on.  Let's hope your example is the way-on-the-fringe-outlier.