In William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, which has been read by high school students for decades, Juliet tries to convince Romeo that it doesn’t matter that he is a Montague and she a Capulet (his family’s sworn enemies) by arguing: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And she is correct. Changing the name of something does not change what it is, does not change its molecular composition, or even its parts. A rose, called jimsonweed, would still be a beautiful, many petaled flower with a sweet smell. Likewise, a refrigerator will not cook us dinner simply because we start calling it a stove. Nor does a man become a woman (with a penis) just because he says that he is. Unfortunately, this is a simple truth that is beyond the understanding of the left, and now the Democrat Party which has embraced them. They live in a world of fantasy where things are what they say they are simply because they wish them to be so. Truth no longer has a part in their world.
And so, the president* has issued an order that no government worker can use the term CHINA VIRUS to refer to the Coronavirus that has swept the world, because, although the Chinese themselves said it had originated in the wet markets in Wuhan Province, and later intelligence reports have said that in fact it was created and accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan Province which we have been supporting financially. In other words, it was most probably a virus that the Chinese had created in their lab and were experimenting with when some of it was carried out by a worker. But, all those facts aside, we can no longer say CHINA VIRUS instead of coronavirus or COVID-19 because that might offend the Chinese or Asian Americans.
I object to the term coronavirus, also, and would suggest that the president*, if he is going to start banning speech, should ban that term instead of China Virus. It offends, I am sure both our neighbors, and their beloved cat, whose name is Corona, as well as her progeny. Why should a poor, defenseless animal, who had nothing to do with this pandemic, have the pandemic named after her instead of those who are without a doubt culpable of unleashing this disease upon the world. No doubt if the president* knew about poor, innocent Corona, he would immediately issue an executive order forbidding the naming of viruses after her!
Certainly, during WWII, people disassociated themselves from Germany by renaming German breeds of dogs – – – not by killing all the German breeds! German Shepherds became Alsatians (named after a province in France), the German Spitz became the American Eskimo Dog, and the Dachshund became known as the Badger Dog, the translation of Dachshund into English. Thus, the idea of Asian Americans being hunted down on the streets and beaten up or worse simply because the Coronavirus COVID-19 strain originated in China is in itself offensive to all Americans, as is the idea that Asian Americans should be offended by naming a disease after the country of its origin! If they choose to be offended, we can solve that problem as we did during WWII by simply no longer referring to them as Asian Americans, but simply as Americans. After all, are we not all in this together?
In fact, however, naming diseases after their place of origin is historically common. Consider the following:
Ebola – originated near the Ebola river in the Republic of the Congo
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever – originated in the Rocky Mountains
Lyme Disease — named after a small coastal town of Lyme, Connecticut
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) – originated in the Middle East
West Nile Virus – originated in the West Nile
Spanish Flu – originated in Spain following WWI
Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever – originated in the Congo
German Measles – originated in Germany
The London Plague – second outbreak of bubonic plague which began in London
Fiji Measles – yep, from Fiji
Russian flu – you guessed it, from Russia
Must we rename all of these to protect the feelings of those living in Lyme, Connecticut, or in the Republic of the Congo, or in the Rocky Mountains, or in the Middle East?
Sometimes disease are even named after people. For example, we have Lou Gehrig’s Disease
and Legionnaires’ Disease. Lou Gehrig was the first diagnosed with this gradually fatal disease, but are we concerned about the feelings of his family members? Might they not cringe every time it is announced that someone has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease? Or what about the respiratory disease that first spread through a ship of American Legionnaires on a cruise and is now dubbed the Legionnaires’ Disease? Might not members of the American Legion be offended when there are reports that someone has contracted Legionnaires’ Disease?
A rose by any other name. These disease are what they are and came from the places that have given them their names. Changing the name of the West Nile Virus is not going to change the fact that it originated in the West Nile region (Egypt). Refusing to call COVID-19 the China Virus, the Chinese Virus, or the Wuhan Virus, is not going to change the fact that the disease originated in China, most probably in a lab which we were funding, and was then covered up by the Chinese who did not want to admit they had unleashed a plague upon the world.
Still, if the president* is set upon obliterating their culpability, perhaps because his son is still in the pay of a large, Communist Chinese company, I have an idea. Let’s number pandemics. Looking back in history, we can start with 430 B.C. in Athens and a disease that was probably typhoid fever. We continue with the Antonine plague in 165 A.D., the Cyprian Plague in 250 A.D., the Justinian Plague in 541 A.D., Leprosy in the 11th century, The Black Death (1st bubonic plague) in 1350, the Columbian Exchange in 1492, the Great London Plague (2nd bubonic plague) in 1665, the first Cholera Pandemic in 1817, the third Bubonic Plague in 1855, the Fiji Measles Pandemic in 1875, the Russian flu in 1889, the Spanish flu in 1918, the Asian flu in 1957, HIV/AIDS in 1981, SARS in 2003, and now COVID-19 in 2019. (Notice how many are named after the place of origin?) That makes the China Virus (COVID-19) the 18th pandemic to sweep the known world.
So, when you get a chance, take the #18 pandemic shot. Maybe it will help protect you also against pandemic #19 when it arrives! But remember, the China Virus is still the China Virus by any other name!