Yet More PC Idiocy...

[Guinevere]

What BigRR said, in spades.

[Big RR]

juvenile upper respiratory whatsits could refer to hundreds of conditions. whooping cough is whooping cough.....

Of course, but whooping cough is known to clinicians; if you had a new disease never seen before and call it whooping cough, the name really wouldn't tell your all that much, would it?

[wesw]

it would tell me that it came with a distinctive cough....

[Big RR]

Or that it was passed on by whooping cranes,

[Joe Guy]

Whoop!

[Big RR]

See?

[wesw]

....and h2 n1 virus is so much more clear?

[Big RR]

To those who know viral classifications, I would think so. But that is not what the WHO is proposing, they are proposing naming new diseases by their symptoms and methods of transmission and other relevant information.

[Econoline]

Do names like German measles, Spanish flu, swine flu, or Legionnaire’s disease really convey any more information than H1 N1???

[Gob]

To the public at large, probably

[MajGenl.Meade]

My friend Bob died of "swine flu"... but his family and friends refuse to call it by that name. Bob was far from being a swine.

[Econoline]

To the public at large, probably

Really? Do the words "German", Spanish", "swine", or "Legionnaires" really convey any more useful information than four other random adjectives, such as, say, "pink", "purple" "solar" and "organic"?

NEWS FLASH! Scientists have discovered a new disease, which they're calling "Welsh pox"...now, just what would that name tell the public at large about that hypothetical disease????

[MajGenl.Meade]

Only transmissible by sheep?

[Econoline]

[Gob]

To the public at large, probably

Really? Do the words "German", Spanish", "swine", or "Legionnaires" really convey any more useful information than four other random adjectives, such as, say, "pink", "purple" "solar" and "organic"?

No, but long standing names tend to carry public familiarity, no?

NEWS FLASH! Scientists have discovered a new disease, which they're calling "Welsh pox"...now, just what would that name tell the public at large about that hypothetical disease????

That it originated in Wales and has certain characteristics and symptoms, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. (I've had it for years.)

[rubato]

Science has undergone many changes in nomenclature over the past two centuries most recently the systematic names in biology have had to be re-organized to match up with genetic reality rather than superficial phenotypes.

Amazing how we can get all of this useful work done without the braying of Republican jackasses on syndicated radio?


yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

Nobody is proposing to change long-standing, familiar names of already-identified diseases. And in the case of the hypothetical "Welsh pox" the name might or might not have something to do with the origin of the disease; see the link rubato posted about the name of the "Spanish flu".

[Big RR]

Econoline--exactly, well known diseases can be called by their common names, these suggestions are for clinicians who discover and give a name to a new disease. And I still think a name which includes descriptive terms like the symptoms and how it is transmitted, etc., is useful to everyone.

Look at the term "flu", exactly what does it convey. Nothing, it is used generically for a bunch of unrelated diseases, and it comes from a superstitious term "influenza" which meant the sufferer was being influenced by some evil forces. It will be kept, but the term conveys pretty much nothing (and adding a geographic term like Spanish or Hong Kong) does nothing to remedy this.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I'm begging them not to use acronyms.

juvenile infectious upper respiratory disease

JIURD?

[Lord Jim]

The whole discussion is probably academic; They have no power to enforce their PC guidelines, and very few people are likely to pay any attention to what anyone from this incompetent and scandal ridden organization has to say about how diseases should be named anyway...