It is almost 3 months since December 30, 2019, when the Wuhan Health Commission issued the Urgent Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Treatment of Unknown Cause of Pneumonia.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the naming discussions on the virus and its diseases have never stopped, and we have seen various names in the media at home and abroad:
Unexplained pneumonia, Wuhan pneumonia, new coronavirus, COVID-19, 2019-nCov, HCoV-19, Novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 ....
One might ask, why are there so many differences in naming a new virus and disease? Why can't we simply name the place where the first patient was reported and call it "China virus" or "Wuhan pneumonia"?
These changes in titles have not only witnessed the deepening of the process of virus research, but also revealed stereotypes between different regions and races.
1. Carefully name emerging diseases
The more cautious the naming of diseases, the more it can show respect for science and the populations of different countries and regions.
Historically, the hastily named disease or virus has caused many countries or regions that have suffered the epidemic to suffer secondary injuries.
In 2012, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak. The naming of the virus uses localized domain names, which has caused great distress to the people of the Middle East. In addition to being charged with the source of the infection, it also affected the local economic development.
"Avian flu", named after poultry, caused millions of healthy poultry to be killed for no reason after the outbreak due to misunderstanding of the virus.
In order to avoid unjustified economic losses caused by incorrect naming, after the agreement between WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2015, the rules for naming viruses were adjusted to minimize the impact on the country, the economy and the people. Unnecessary negative effects.
Dr Keiji Fukuda, then WHO Assistant Director-General for Health and Safety, stated:
This may seem like a minor issue to some people, but disease naming matters to people who are directly affected. We have seen that some disease names have caused strong reactions to members of specific religions or ethnic communities, brought unreasonable obstacles to travel, business and trade, and triggered unnecessary slaughter of food animals. This can have serious consequences for people's lives and livelihoods.
2. A reasonable naming should follow the following principles
Although it is the task of the World Health Organization (WHO) to name emerging diseases, as ordinary people and even the media, understanding the rules for disease naming can help us to report facts and publish in a more rational, neutral, and constructive manner in this epidemic. Perspectives, in order to promote irrational stereotypes in different countries and regions.
According to the "Best Practices for Naming New Human Infectious Diseases" published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in May 2015, new disease names should include:
General descriptive words
Description of clinical symptoms, physiological processes, etc.
Or affected systems
Specific descriptive words
Age, population, course of disease, epidemiology
Source (zoonotic) severity, season, environment
Pathogen (if the pathogen causing the disease is known)
Coronavirus, Salmonella
Year of occurrence
Identifier
Alpha, beta, a, b, I, II, III, 1,2,3
In addition, the new disease naming rules also state that disease naming should be avoided:
Geographical location (e.g. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, Rift Valley Fever)
Name (such as Kreuzfeldt-Jacob disease, Chagas disease)
Animal or food population
(Swine flu, bird flu, monkey pox)
Involving culture, population, industry or occupation
(Eg Legionella)
Terms that can incite excessive panic
(Eg unknown, deadly, epidemic)
The names in parentheses above are unreasonable examples.
On February 11th, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tan Desai announced the official name of the disease caused by the new coronavirus: 2019 Coronavirus disease, the English abbreviation COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019).
CO stands for Corona (crown), VI stands for Virus, and D stands for Disease.
On March 2nd, "Microbiology", a sub-issue of "Nature", published a consensus article on the classification and naming of New Coronaviruses by the International Committee of Taxonomy of Coronavirus Research Group (CSG). -2.
At this point, the names of the new coronaviruses and their diseases were carefully determined.
3. Correctly calling an emerging disease is a manifestation of human civilization
Recently, many foreign politicians and media on social networks gave up using the names carefully set by WHO and CSG, and directly called "Wuhan pneumonia" and "China virus".
On March 19, local time, US President Trump was photographed by the Washington Post photographer while attending the press conference at the White House. The word "Corona" was crossed out and rewritten as "Chinese" ".
Earlier, Trump also used the Chinese Virus expression in his personal Twitter.
According to this logic, the outbreak of H1N1 influenza (historically called "Spanish flu"), which caused an infection of 500 million people worldwide and killed 17 million to 50 million people, from 1918 to 1920 Naming), should it be named "Finston Military Camp, Kansas, U.S.", should it be called "U.S. Legion Flu"?
Similarly, if named after the region where the first diagnosed case was reported, June 5, 1981, "AIDS" was first reported in the United States worldwide. Should it be called "American STD"?
Of course, the naming methods of the above two examples are not what we want to see.
To some extent, prudently referring to an emerging virus and the diseases it causes is a reflection of human civilization.
Attempting to name the virus to provoke national conflicts and induce racial discrimination will only dissolve goodwill and cooperation, and increase the feeling of confrontation between nations and even people.
With the globalization of the epidemic, the number of infected countries and the total number of people are increasing, and stereotypes between different countries continue to be fermented on social networks. We have to send another reminder:
The enemy of humanity is not the person infected with the virus, nor the country where the first case was reported, but the virus itself.
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