- Hodgkins Lymphoma is named after... Thomas Hodgkin who discovered it.
- Ebola is named after the Ebola River in the DRC. (https://goo.gl/maps/dF1MMnpBBwXpAZ3k8)
- Lyme disease is named after Old Lyme, Connecticut. (https://goo.gl/maps/Haqg2fxmYwcHELRY8)
- Bornholm disease is named after Bornholm Island in Denmark (https://goo.gl/maps/LDWDw5iS9X2xsA3B8), which is caused by the Coxsackie B virus named after... Coxsackie, New York, a small town on the Hudson where it was isolated. (https://goo.gl/maps/RKrhBup2ZAgzXVGJ9)
The recent bout of sensitivity is likely a game of left v. right finger-pointing. Who cares whether it's the Wuhan virus, the Wengliang Flu (after the man who discovered it) or nCoV-19? Go find a cure, a vaccine, etc. Naming a disease after where it started is a long-standing tradition. [1] This kind of shit-stirring over something nobody is actually offended by is exactly what gets the right worked up.
[EDIT] In fact, having a disease named after you is considered honorific: "Eponyms are a longstanding tradition in Western science and medicine. Being awarded an eponym is regarded as an honor: 'Eponymity, not anonymity, is the standard.' The scientific and medical communities regard it as bad form to attempt to eponymise oneself." [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymously_named_dise...
[1] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/30440/12-diseases-and-lu...
There are innumerable wet markets in Asia, this is not only totally unwarranted but largely xenophobic. Would you call the leafy green supply chain in the US "unsanitary" since we recall them in the US a few times a year? The last time we recalled spinach over salmonella was just 6 months ago [1] E. Coli was just 3 months ago [2].
To quote the WHO: "Primary sources of [E. Coli] outbreaks are raw or undercooked ground meat products, raw milk, and faecal contamination of vegetables" [3] so someone's been pooping in America's mixed greens.
They may be a bit gruesome if you're unaccustomed but they serve so many people it's hard to believe they're overwhelmingly unsanitary.
> The chinese government supressed info about this virus.
This on the other hand is a good point.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/13/health/dole-spinach-recall-sa...
Though it does not excuse many of China's initial actions, and I doubt this is the only reason for those actions, I can understand wanting to downplay something like this while you're in the middle of negotiations to stop a trade war. It's not hard to imagine the US calling for an immediate closing of the borders and shelving of the trade deal.
This qualifier, "initial", makes me think you are arguing that their subsequent actions are excusable. I'd argue they aren't excusable, even from a completely amoral utilitarian perspective - because nothing they've done even looks rational. Accusing the other party in trade negotiations of releasing a biological weapon, coincidentally right next to your own infectious disease facility, isn't going to improve negotiation prospects - no rational person would think that it could. Threatening to interrupt medical supply chains during a pandemic... I can't think of a better battlecry for those who'd advocate pulling all operations out of China. Forcing workers to return to the factories and claiming that you are back at 85% capacity, when everyone has access to near real time satellite imagery proving that your coal plants aren't running, isn't going to strengthen your negotiation position.
Over the past months they have made many good moves, and their conduct after signing the trade deal in early January seems decent.
>Accusing the other party in trade negotiations of releasing a biological weapon, coincidentally right next to your own infectious disease facility
One member of the foreign department posting things on Twitter is not the actions of the state. Further, that man's post seemed to be made as a reply to the "US accusation" that the virus was unleashed intentionally by the Chinese. I don't understand how you can attack one while repeating the other.
And while I don't support forcing workers back to work or misleading economic reports, they're fairly common tactics worldwide.
Oh that is an easy one. That US accusation was actually open speculation by Indian and German researchers examining the only data that China was willing to share with the rest of the world. They weren't accused of intentionally unleashing it, but negligence was speculated - the lying and secrecy is the cause for that, and they have only themselves to blame. China had allowed only one outside crisis team in, from the WHO (which lost credibility long ago) - and they only spent a single day in Wuhan. Around that time it was discovered that China had been under-reporting infections by an order of magnitude, every province coincidentally made the same calculation error for the same period of time.
> ...they're fairly common tactics worldwide.
This is all unprecedented. We have never seen such transparent lies counter-messaged in near realtime by way of opensource intelligence. Grassroots btw, the corporate response has been denial - followed by a week or two of softening messaging, then admission to the truth. The information surrounding cross species transmissibility is a good example: videos starting popping up of Chinese people hurling their pets from rooftops in response to government warnings with regard to transmissibility. The corporate media immediately swung into action, declaring any such talk as racist FakeNews™ - but they were wrong again.
This seems to be referring to the immediately pulled journal saying some parts of the virus were very similar to HIV, at least that's the only Indian or German researcher based thing I've heard. That wasn't the start of the hoax, the "open speculation" was basically just that engineering this was possible, and the blame for these hoaxes does not rest on the Chinese.
>This is all unprecedented.
It's not, and I was referencing two very specific claims you were making. When you feel we are encountering an unprecedented level of misinformation, why do you think that your information is untainted?
The only perpetrator that would provide an excuse for baselessly accusing the US military would have to be the US government. So when did they fabricate that hoax? Was it when the FBI started cracking down on spies in January? Are they the ones that pressured the Mounties to start clearing their level-4 labs of Chinese virologists last year?
> ...the blame for these hoaxes does not rest on the Chinese.
The lying and secrecy creates the environment in which that sort of thing thrives. At some point you can't characterize predictable consequences as victim blaming, for many the benefit of doubt was lost pretty early on, following the crackdown on doctors and journalists who accurately described events.
> When you feel we are encountering an unprecedented level of misinformation, why do you think that your information is untainted?
Let me be more clear: China lying about something is to be expected. What is unprecedented is the combination of two things: the lie being told has severe and unavoidable consequences to everyone, and the means to combat the lies are not only open to all - but are actively being employed to do so. The beauty of opensource intelligence is that any potential for manipulation can be quantified in a way that secretly sourced data cannot.
I'm not defending it, but it isn't happening in a vacuum.