G7 statement canceled: US wants to call it the Wuhan virus | Hacker News Reader

G7 statement canceled: US wants to call it the Wuhan virus

spiegel.de

42 pointspayne84 comments

My wife is part of a Mom's group based in the bay area. One of the mom's in that group (who happens to be Taiwanese), wrote a post about how she was a victim of statements along the lines of a) "It is funny you want to practice social distance when it is you folks who brought the virus here" b) "How dare you show your face here during this time..."

And this was by the folks working at the checkout counter (with passive support from other shoppers there). IMHO calling it Chinese / Wuhan virus opens the gate to these kind of hate crimes to become common place.

My wife, who is Asian, is terrified to go shopping.

My friend who is Asian (not Chinese) says she and her family are experiencing similar treatment. They get stared at harshly everywhere they go, which never happened before this crisis. They also don't want to go out anymore to get necessities because of this.

To be fair "getting stared harshly" may be them dreaming that up.

When I leave the home, my mom has to tell me to be careful since if bad people mistake me for Chinese they may beat me up.

Note: I live in SoCal

Sad times.

I likely live very close to you.

She should walk around with the video recorder on on her cell.

At least the Bay Area is pretty peaceful. It’s highly unlikely she’ll get physically assaulted.

Most famous diseases are names thus * Spanish flu * Ebola

Maybe there is a change in behavior with the name, but I suspect those people are taking advantage of the situation to express what they’ve always wanted to.

I understand "coronavirus" isn't specific, but why not just use that? Nobody this year will be confused what is being talked about. And if another coronavirus comes around, it will end up with a different commonly used name. Hearing "Chinese virus" the first time made me think first of a computer virus, then some brand new virus I wasn't aware of, and then finally realizing it was another term for the coronavirus.

> Nobody this year will be confused what is being talked about.

You'd be surprised. My relatives sent me a conspiracy theory video based on the fact that Lysol wipes manufactured in fall 2019 claim they kill "Coronavirus". So obviously the global conspiracy knew of the virus in advance!

The fact that it’s not specific enough really is a problem. We can call it COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2, but that kind of precision is inconvenient.

Fair. COVID-19 would also work for me. That's used enough that people know immediately what you're talking about.

I am starting to see it referred to as "C-19," or "C19."

COVID-19 is a _disease_ caused by SARS-CoV-2, just as AIDS caused by HIV.

Point is, nobody will be confused when you say COVID-19 or more specifically “COVID-19 virus” where context demands it.

The best of both worlds would be to come up with a precise, "inconvenient" name, then create an acronym from it.

I can’t tell if you’re joking. Acronyms always overlap with some other meaning causing misunderstanding.

Not joking; An acronym + virus is much better than china + virus, or Covid-19 (which is actually the name of the disease).

Or, better yet, call it COVID-19. Slightly more specific than just coronavirus. Yes, COVID is the disease, not the organism, but for most common uses in everyday speech, that's probably ok.

The correct name for virus is SARS-CoV-2. The resultant disease it causes in humans is named COVID-19. Simple.

Anyone is free to make up whatever names they like, and the rest of the world is free to ignore them and use the correct names.

Is it SARS-CoV-2 or is it 2019-nCoV? Seems to depend on the context.

Apparently, 2019-nCoV was the earlier label, until they decided to classify it more precisely as a SARS-type: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-0695-z

I think 2019-nCoV is an older synonym, and now that the lineage has been established SARS-CoV-2 is preferred (and and -1 got added to the older one that used to just be SARS-CoV)

2019-nCoV was the provisional name, SARS-CoV-2 is the current official name of the virus.

Naming virused by places creates incentive to keep things hidden as long as possible - hoping that it will become public in some other place first.

That's how "Spanish Flu" happened when the first detection was in Kansas.

SARS-CoV-2 is a bit overwrought. A semi official short version would be helpful.

SARS was easy.

SARS2 seems okay.

CV19 is easy enough.

So on. Officials should pick something that’s shorter and easier (but still specific) as the informal name.

SARS2 seems to be a rational name

I looked for an English version of this news without luck. Anyone have another source?

China should decide the name since they discovered it.

What the article doesn't say, is that China too is desperately blaming other countries for the virus; not just the US, but also Italy.

The US calling it The China Virus et al is in response to Chinese officials blaming the virus on American troops. It's all just politics, not racism.

That said, I'm not sure it's a good discussion to have on this site..

> It's all just politics, not racism.

It's going to end up as both, because in public speaking, we don't control our meaning -- the people do. The branding power of the "Chinese Virus" is going to reach Asians across America.

Then how should higher-level geopolitics and popular sentiment modification be carried out better? China is undoubtedly leveraging every bit of power they have to sow popular opinion against the US. How can the US counter that without bringing claims of racism?

Edit: removed snark

I can understand the desire to not want to stigmatize the people of China and people of Chinese decent.

But we should not let the Chinese leadership off the hook for continuing the disgusting Wet Markets.

Let's meet half-way and give it a short pronounceable name:

Call it the PROCVirus - named after the government of the People's Republic of China.

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