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Is 'Monkey Pox' Racist?

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Is 'Monkey Pox' Racist?

No more than 'Wuhan Virus'

William F. Vallicella
Jul 28, 2022
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Members of certain ‘vulnerable communities’ are opining that ‘monkey pox,’ the name, not the disease, is racist.

I'll grant you that it is if you grant me that leftism is a deadly virus and that leftists, 'liberals,' 'progressives,' ‘wokesters,’ and members of the Democrat Party in the USA knowingly and willingly carry and transmit it.

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Do we have a deal?  But if ‘monkey pox' and ‘Wuhan virus' are racist, then then so are the following names:

  • West Nile

  • Lyme (named after a town in Connecticut)

  • Spanish flu

  • German measles

  • Norovirus (named after Norwalk, Ohio)

  • Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

  • St. Louis encephalitis

  • Lassa fever (named after a town in Nigeria)

  • Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

  • Ebola (named after a river in Africa)

  • Legionnaires' disease (named after the American Legion)

If the bulleted entries are not racist expressions, then neither is 'monkey pox.'

Origins matter! Whence a disease came, and from which species of critter, are matters of scientific interest to epidemiologists. Friendly advice: Never let the delusions of ‘wokery’ get between you and reality.

Class dismissed. Above list found here.

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