| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| WHO to stop using 'swine flu' name |
| 2009-05-01 |
| GENEVA - The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu. WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs. "Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said. The swine flu virus originated in pigs, and has genes from human, bird and pig viruses. Scientists don't know exactly how it jumped to humans. In the current outbreak, WHO says the virus is being spread from human to human, not from contact with infected pigs. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #18 *ahem* some of us "the sophisticated ones" knew that. As well as Excelsior™! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-05-01 21:51 |
| #17 ManBirdPig is a ripoff from Southpark's ManBearPig. Lampooning Al Gore and Global Warming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsg5Qpiwwac Thats the commentary from Matt & Trey above, below is a semi-ripoff made by a fan. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-05-01 21:14 |
| #16 Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, about a Washington spin doctor who distracts the electorate from a U.S. presidential sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood producer, played by Dustin Hoffman, to construct a fake war with Albania. Wag the Dog flu--distraction from the economy and other things. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-05-01 19:30 |
| #15 An aboriginal friend calls it the piggy piggy flu. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2009-05-01 17:47 |
| #14 ManBirdPig? Wag The Dog? |
| Posted by: Lagom 2009-05-01 17:43 |
| #13 Funniest term I heard for it was "Aporkalypse - Now" |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2009-05-01 17:11 |
| #12 Avian Swine Flu - flying pig jokes to ease your pain! |
| Posted by: flash91 2009-05-01 16:53 |
| #11 The flu with No-Name? The "Whatever" flu? The Porcine-Avian-Human Blown Out of Proportion flu? The Wag-the-Dog flu? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-05-01 14:07 |
| #10 When in doubt, the media goes to an expert... Paris Hilton on swine flu: 'I don't eat that' Bullshit. I saw your video. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-05-01 12:45 |
| #9 Hell, call it the Wolf 359 virus. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-05-01 12:28 |
| #8 I thought we was calling it the Napolitano flu. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-05-01 12:06 |
| #7 This is like trying to decide what color to paint the barn when the door is open and it's on fire. (WHAT? It's Friday.) |
| Posted by: Anon4021 2009-05-01 10:39 |
| #6 Montezuma's Second Revenge. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-05-01 10:28 |
| #5 And the bubonic plague is being renamed the Butterfly Difficulty. |
| Posted by: Highlander 2009-05-01 10:22 |
| #4 We called one strain Spanish flu because we thought it first occurred in Spain. Another was Hong Kong flu because it seemed to come from Hong Kong. So rather that Swine flu, shouldn't this be called Mexican flu? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-05-01 09:23 |
| #3 Good question! I dunno... Who is to stop me from using 'swine flu' name? Who else? The STONECUTTERS! |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-05-01 01:28 |
| #2 Call it the ManBirdPig flu. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-05-01 01:24 |
| #1 CHINESE MIL FORUM > MEXICO BLAMES CHINA, PAKISTAN, AND BANGLADESH FOR SWINE FLU [tourists, new emigres]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-05-01 00:37 |