Why is the name of the disease no longer associated with the place name?

There have been many epidemics named after where they originated, but why hasn't any organization called nCoV the "Chinese virus"?

In recent days, US President Donald Trump used the term "Chinese virus" to talk about nCoV (SARS-CoV-2) - the corona - type pneumonia virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in the world. . The name comes from the virus originating from the city of Wuhan, China.

"The United States will strongly support industries, such as aviation and a number of other industries, affected by the Chinese virus. We will be stronger than before," Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter post. Not only Trump, but many American officials and senators also use this name.

Picture 1 of Why is the name of the disease no longer associated with the place name?
Photos of Mr. Trump's documentary on the corona virus, the word "corona" has been changed to "China".(Image: Jabin Botsford / Twitter).

There have been mixed opinions regarding Trump's calling. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shang said on March 17 the country was "extremely indignant" after President Donald Trump called the new strain of corona virus the "Chinese virus". He emphasized linking the virus with China as "a kind of discrimination".

The representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) does not share the view of the US president's calling, for the use of this term may make many people associate with a specific group of individuals when referring to corona virus. .

In response, Trump said the way he called it was precisely due to the virus "from China," insisting it would not change the way it was called. A part of the community also supports Mr. Trump's calling because it is simply the first outbreak in China.

There have been many epidemics named after where they originated, but why hasn't any organization called nCoV the "Chinese virus"?

Picture 2 of Why is the name of the disease no longer associated with the place name?
Since 2015, the new WHO rule has not allowed naming of a disease by geographic location.(Photo: Relevant).

In 1918, an influenza pandemic infected 500 million people, killing at least 40-50 million. Considered one of the worst natural disasters in human history, it is the Spanish flu pandemic .

It's called the Spanish flu, but this pandemic doesn't actually originate in Spain. At that time, governments did not want outsiders to know they were experiencing the disease because of the war. The Spanish press is not strictly censored, so the first information about cases and deaths comes from Spain.

In fact, the virus that caused this pandemic originated in Kansas , a state in the Midwest. Therefore, this pandemic should have been called "American flu" or "Kansas flu".

Surely no one wants their homeland to be named an epidemic because it originated from there. How would you feel if you lived in Zika forest, Ebola river?

Incorrectly naming can also affect translation control. During the outbreak of the plague in the Chinese neighborhood in San Francisco in 1900, ethnic Chinese were discriminated against, affecting health policy and handling the epidemic.

That continued to repeat during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this moment, trying to prevent and control effectively will be better than focusing on criticizing the place of disease outbreak. The virus doesn't care where you are, it just invades when it gets a chance.

In 2015, it was WHO that promulgated a specification for naming the disease, not mentioning the name of the outbreak to avoid stigma and confusion.

Specifically, the name of the disease will be based on symptoms, characteristics and causes (if any). For example, Covid-19 means "corona virus disease detected in 2019".

In the naming guidelines, WHO does not recommend naming viruses according to geographic location (Middle East MERS Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish flu, Rift Valley fever), after humans (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Chagas disease) , animal or food names (swine flu, bird flu, monkey smallpox) or contain phrases that are excessively confusing (unknown, fatal).

There are many epidemic names that have been named after them in the past, but the new WHO WHO rules have not been applied since 2015.