No, there really isn’t. If Lyme disease was instead called “nigger disease”, do you honestly believe that it wouldn’t be changed.
Consistency in terms is of paramount value when arguing about these things. My cite is this thread and a whole host of others where terms could not be agreed upon because someone wants to make up a new version of the word because they saw someone use it once.
If it is RACIST now, it is still racist for the then terms.
Consistency.
Because what difference does it make to know that Lyme Disease was first discovered in Lyme, CT? It doesn’t tell you anything about it (is it a virus? Bacteria? Parasite?), doesn’t tell you how it affects you, what the symptoms are, nothing. How does it help to call it Spanish Flu, when it came from the US?
It’s also not just about not naming things after places, it’s also not naming things after who discovered them or after professions either. Fucking miners, bunch of fucking snowflakes. Amirite?
Anyway, I just popped in to ask again, where are you people seeing all this Chinese propaganda? I only come across it when people here post about it.
This thread is so much fun:
OP: Why is it called Wuhan virus? Is it because Wuhan is a well-known large city?
Everyone else: fights
Me: Wuhan isn’t a well-known large city and almost no one is calling it Wuhan virus
More fighting along the lines of, Trump did a racist thing because he scratched out corona virus and put Chinese virus in its place [editor’s note: not Wuhan virus, BTW]. Others: The CCP is bad, mmmkay? First group: oookay, but what Trump did was racist. Second group: You’re all a bunch of dupes for the CCP!! First group: ??
I also love the multiple takes of “why don’t we still name things after places?” followed by the 500th cite of the agreement that the US is part of that says, “we won’t name things after places”.
I want to thank our Canadian brethren for making sure that the US president is just as racist as they want him to be. I wonder what Trudeau is calling it?
OK, re-flouncing. I read this thread, get angry, and close it.
That’s why it’s still called Lyme disease and the Ebola virus. We’re discussing a current disease, not an old, well-known one. Some things are in the past, but we’re living in the present, and moving inexorably towards a dystopian future where diseases will be known by the content of their character, not by the region near where they may have originated.
Because it doesn’t convey any useful information, it tends to stigmatize locations and people who then suffer more consequences, it’s scientifically imprecise, and it leads to political bickering. And 5 years ago the WHO changed the naming conventions for these valid reasons.
Yes it would be changed.
I am not the one claiming historical consistency is a critical (or even most important) consideration. In reality there are a number of factors to consider.
I just now gave reasons why changing the names of diseases is problematic – I am sure that WHO would have considered retroactively renaming diseases but rejected it as impractical and infeasible. Do you disagree?
Meanwhile, while Lyme disease and Nigger disease both might be considered racist, if we define racist in the broadest way possible, the degree of offense caused, and so the importance of that factor is not the same.
Has even one person ever been offended by Lyme disease?
The consistency we should apply is calling diseases by the names experts give them.
When people start changing scientific terms for blatantly political reasons, if you actually care about consistency, you would have a huge problem.
Instead, it’s pretty clear that the Fox News viewers among us agree with the political reasons to rename things to make the Cheeto in Chief happy, and thus we have this argument.
The point being argued is that the CCP propaganda machine was something Trump was trying to fight against. His label of the virus as the Chinese virus was absolutely inflammatory and uncalled for, however it was originally named the Wuhan Virus, until WHO got wind evidently.
My point is simple, if something is racist NOW, then the same word(s) should be racist in retrospect, if it is still present and prevalent.
Also, I laugh at the “stigmatizes the region for which it was named”. EXACTLY for that reason do I think it’s a bullshit reason.
No one in Lyme, is “stigmatized”, not one single person.
I’m trying to grasp the direction or relevance, if any, of your query. Is it your claim that China anticipated a 2019 virus, and therefore coerced the WHO to adopt this rule in 2015?
Suppose there is a new Coronavirus in 2021, and epidemiologists are able to trace its provenance back to sharts emerging from the anus of one Donald J. Trump. To be consistent, will you advocate that that virus be called the “Trump virus” rather than “Covid-21”?
Trump calling SARS-2 (or whatever) ‘the Chinese virus’ is not a racist dogwhistle at all.
He refers to China, not ‘people who are Chinese or of Chinese descent’.
I was trying to provide context. Some weeks ago, the official PRC news agencies called it the Wuhan virus. Based on the location. This and all of the above should put Trump’s words in perspective.
If you are not convinced, then we disagree. Keep safe down there!
Try telling that to the Asian-Americans who are experiencing an uptick in physical and verbal attacks (see above link).
Try telling that to Asians who verbally attacked the United States and accused it of deliberate mass murder.
See how that works?
Here is a news article from January 8 in which Chinese researchers called it a new coronavirus. Here is the first WHO report of the “novel coronavirus.” Your assertion is bullshit.
White people tend not to stigmatize white people. For example, how many white schoolkids get harassed for being the cause of Lyme disease? Zero. This has never happened. Chinese-American kids being accused of eating bats? Oh for sure.
The bubble of white privilege is blinding.
ETA: Hey Trump supporting consistency hobgoblins: was it really the Spanish flu? That’s a good name for it, you suppose?
And as it usually ends up working when Trump’s stupid ignorant attempts to attack others end up attacking not only his alleged targets but the innocent, the Cheeto in chief ends up tossing defenders like you under the bus:
Trump responded to CHINA accusing the US of mass murder when in fact it was CHINA’s fault the virus spread as a result of them keeping it quiet.
So, in response to someone shilling for mass murderers, you’re welcome to your opinion as is the horse that opinion rode in on.
As mentioned, there were more direct ways to do that than the stupid way Trump choose early.
You also keep using that straw man, I do not think it shows what you think it shows. 
Better learn from Trump then regarding the proper naming conventions, or ignore what he is saying, it will help you too.
Of course he’s not convinced, because the argument makes no sense. China and Trump are distinct entities. Why would looking at why China does something tell us why Trump does something? It’s a complete non sequitur.
What you have to look at it is why Trump would say “Chinese virus.” Why would he, the president of the United States with a personal grudge against China, rename a virus with an existing name? Why would a president with a history of blaming non-Americans for things deliberately ignore the CDC and WHO and call it after the country? People don’t just change the names of things for no reason–the name change is about putting forth a different narrative.
Then there is his past history. This is the guy who attacks Mexican immigrants as being “rapists and drug dealers.” He’s the one who attacks all Muslims, rather than just ISIS. He’s the guy who had his apartments not allow black people. He’s the guy who has admitted that he thinks he has superior genes. He’s the guy who was okay with putting children in cages because they weren’t Americans. He’s the guy who turned refugees into some sort of attack on our country.
The default, the null hypothesis for someone with that history is not to assume that “Well, this time, he’s not being racist.” When you see all that smoke, you don’t ignore the fire. When both past history and current stated beliefs line up with racism, you don’t ignore that.
This happens a lot with talks about racism. Unless you can prove racism beyond a shadow of a doubt, it gets ignored. That is a problem that extends beyond this discussion.
More from the BBC:
No SHIT.
Yes, not announcing to the world that your screw-up was a deliberate act of war committed by another country.