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Comment by freeone3000 | Hacker News Reader

Ebola is named after a place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_River .

>In 1976, Ebola virus (EBOV) was first identified in Yambuku, 111 kilometers (69 mi) from the Ebola River, but Peter Piot decided to name it after the river so that the town would not be associated with the disease's stigma.

There is an irony in linking to that Wiki article that states that Ebola was not named after the town it was discovered for the exact reason some are saying COVID-19 shouldn't be named after Wuhan or China.

There's also irony in this conspiracy theory that China forced convention to change in order to make themselves look better... But the convention started changing mainly with the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_Nombre_orthohantavirus

Discovered in 1993 near the Canyon del Muerte on the Navajo Reservation, it was originally named the Muerto Canyon hantavirus, in keeping with the convention for naming new pathogens.[2] However, the Navajo Nation objected to the name in 1994.[3] It was also near the Four Corners point in the United States, so the virologists then tried naming it the "Four Corners virus". The name was changed after local residents raised objections.[4] In frustration, the virologists changed it to Sin Nombre, meaning "without a name" in Spanish.

And the result of that was immense discrimination against, and fear of, the people from that region. Similar to many people now blaming anyone they perceive to be Chinese.

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