zlacker

It's been practice for centuries to initially name it after where it was first originated. Spanish flu ring a bell? But yeah Trump's racist for saying China flu.

>>swader+(OP)
Uh, it didn't originate in Spain. From Wikipedia:

> "The pandemic is conventionally marked as having begun on 4 March 1918 with the recording of the case of Albert Gitchell, an army cook at Camp Funston in Kansas, United States"

>>swader+(OP)
The first observations of illness and mortality of the Spanish Flu were actually in the US. The origin of the name of the Spanish Flu is due to it being reported in the news most freely and widely in Spain as many other nations were limiting reporting due to being embroiled in WWI.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

>>swader+(OP)
The Spanish flu didn't originate in Spain -- its origins are disputed, but it was first observed in the US.

I'm surprised you didn't get this memo by now, but Spain gained that ignominy only by being the sole country to not apply censorship regarding the topic at the time ("Land of the Free" included).

It's utter nonsensical bullshit like this that made us collectively move away from naming diseases after countries.

>>basilg+v1
I know this to be the case but it was still first thought to have originated in Spain.

>>cordel+62
We haven't moved away from that until about yesterday. UK variant, SA variant, Brazil variant. These were in the news you know?

>>swader+q5
The Wikipedia page cites no theory that places the origin in Spain. It cites theories of origin for the US, France, China and Europe in general.

>>swader+(OP)
> It's been practice for centuries to initially name it after where it was first originated.

It was practice. Past tense. The WHO changed that practice in 2015 [1]. In fact they explicitly list Spanish Flu as an example of why that practice was flawed.

"Terms that should be avoided in disease names include geographic locations (e.g. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, Rift Valley fever), people’s names (e.g. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Chagas disease), species of animal or food (e.g. swine flu, bird flu, monkey pox), cultural, population, industry or occupational references (e.g. legionnaires), and terms that incite undue fear (e.g. unknown, fatal, epidemic)."

[1]: https://www.who.int/news/item/08-05-2015-who-issues-best-pra...