WHO Renames Wuhan Coronavirus to COVID — 19 But Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Name Sticks
The nightmare of governments across the globe has become increasingly heightened in the continuous onslaught of the deadly Coronavirus. WHO, the apex medical body of the United Nations has quickly swift into action by declaring it a global emergency and renaming the virus strain COVID — 19 as a standard measure to curb against stigmatization, racism, and several other grievous concerns. But Ebola Virus Disease as it is now popularly called was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo still has not gotten a name change that dissociates it from its origin. Since then, the virus has been infecting people from time to time, leading to outbreaks in several African countries.
With the DOW plunging more than 1100 points making it the biggest one-day point decline in history, surpassing it’s previous 1,031 drops on Monday of the same week, one could only imagine what other upsets the deadly Coronavirus is set to stage on the global scene.
CEO’s of top banks have been resigning in droves while the media has gone berserk in their reporting and coverage of the Coronavirus epidemic.
While it is now on record that Coronavirus has now killed over 3,048 persons which is more people than the SARS outbreak of 2003 or the 9/11 terrorist attack that claimed 2,977 lives, there’s still another concern that this outbreak has brought about especially for me who have been following the story from the last days of 2019 when the Virus was reported to be ravaging Wuhan Province in China.
On the 11th of February as per this publication, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it has adopted a standard name for the Wuhan Coronavirus which is COVID-19. This can be safely assumed that the acronym is gotten from Coronavirus disease which rocked Wuhan from 2019. With immediate effect, the media both local and international, center for disease control of various nations, social media and instant messaging conversations adhered almost immediately.
While this is definitely interesting, I decided to dig deeper as to why bodies like WHO create and adopt standardized names for pandemics such as the Coronavirus.
The Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
“First of all, we now have a name for the disease:
COVID-19. I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine — COVID-19. Under agreed guidelines between WHO, the @OIEAnimalHealth & @FAO, we had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease,” … Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing. It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks,This is commendable on the part of the WHO as the real-life impact of the concerns propped up in DG’s statement is crippling. Take a few of these examples;”
Remember the case of “Swine Flu”? This rare strain of the virus is a hybrid of human, swine and bird influenza which rocked the global pork business in 2009, leading to catastrophic damage that impacted the US market heavily. It led to China, Russia, and Ukraine banning pork imports from Mexico and parts of the United States, disrupting the usual spring rise in U.S. hog prices. As Francis Gilmore, a 72-year-old farmer who runs a 600-hog operation in Perry, outside Des Moines said,
“It’s killing our markets,… Where they got the name, I just don’t know.”
The virus was since renamed H1N1 by the WHO and is estimated to have cost countries badly affected especially in North America and Latino American continent as much as 0.5% to 1.5% of their GDP.
How about the SARS pandemic? Its impact on Singapore whose economy revolved around service was badly hit during the 2002/2003 outbreak. Tourism alone accounts for 8 percent to 10 percent of GDP, noticed a significant drop in passenger traffic as much as 68 percent. During the April-June quarter, when the full impact was felt, the economy contracted sharply by 4.2 percent year-on-year.
South Korea is a nation that horrendously took a hit from the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Its tourism industry saw a 2.6 Billion USD loss within this period contributing to estimated losses in the accommodation, food and beverage service, and transportation sectors associated with the decrease of noncitizen visitors were US$542 million, US$359 million, and US$106 million, respectively. This disease, however, is not peculiar to South Korea. In 2012, it was discovered for the first time in a resident from Saudi Arabia. It has been found in 27 different countries asides South Korea. It has since been renamed MERS-CoV by the WHO.
As the news has been making the rounds, Corona Beer (not at all related to the Coronavirus) sales seem to have taken a hit. A recent survey of American beer drinkers found that 38% of those asked will not buy Corona beer and 16% are confused if Corona beer is related to the coronavirus. However, this has since been debunked by a PR from the CEO of Constellation Brands, the owner of Corona Beer.
No doubt, the stigma from most pandemics is real and crushing. Even with the simple knowledge of the Coronavirus emanating from the Wuhan Province in China, Chinese communities all around the world have been reporting racist incidents and dramatic impacts on their businesses. From the US to Toronto in Canada where Chinese Canadians restaurant owners have reported a sharp decline in business up to 30%, the UK and Australia saw a quick societal response to the Coronavirus scare where Chinatown in Sydney was reportedly deserted by its usual swarm of visitors and numerous racist incidents recorded in the UK against their Sino-European neighbours.
One would think with these clear cases of stigma and racism as clearly given by the Director-General of the WHO in renaming the Wuhan Coronavirus to COVID-19, the Ebola Virus Disease rename would be the same. But as we can clearly see, the virus whose name is after a river in what is now mapped as the Democratic Republic of Congo is not about disappearing anytime soon.
It was originally identified as Ebola Haemorrghic Fever (EHF) due to the nature of the disease which includes unexplained hemorrhaging, bleeding or bruising amidst other symptoms. You could say WHO merely decided to play with letters in deciding to rename it Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) from its former name. EVD makes it very clear, the virus originated from Ebola in Congo in which case is not different from the Wuhan Coronavirus, which originated from the Wuhan Province in China if the origin of viruses is to be focussed upon.
If you say this is a clear case of a double standard, you wouldn’t be wrong especially judging by the public statement issued out by the DG World Health Organization himself during a press briefing. Isn’t it ironic that on this historic date where the DG announced the change of name for the Coronavirus strain which originated from the Wuhan Province in China, he repeatedly referred to the Ebola Virus Disease as “Ebola”? Is this for the convenience of pronunciation or any other thing? Well, that question would be better answered by the DG himself.
What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander, I expect WHO should already know this and toe the path of honour by replicating the swiftness it observed in renaming the common name of the virus from Wuhan Coronavirus to COVID — 19, utterly exterminating the origin of the virus from being known at first glance or mention of this pandemic for Ebola disease as well.
