Labels is very important for the left. The left considers labels very important.
Show off: Did you see that was coming? Let’s see if you are among the who didn’t.
In mid-June Alex Parker, my colleague reported that the World Health Organization had announced its intention to name monkeypox because of the stigmatizing and discriminatory nature of the virus. According to the WHO, there is “prevailing belief” that monkeypox is “endemic” in certain African countries. Let’s not forget that monkeypox virus is endemic in some African countries.
Two monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the United States. A small epidemic has been reported in Spain, Portugal and England.
Here’s the information. https://t.co/JYp0YRWoWG
— NPR (@NPR) May 18, 2022
It gets worse. Via Fox News:
The prevailing perception in the international media and scientific literature is that MPXV is endemic to people in some African countries.
However, it is well established that nearly all MPXV outbreaks in Africa prior to the 2022 outbreak, have been the result of spillover from animals to humans, and only rarely have there been reports of sustained human-to-human transmissions.
According to the CDC, scientists first found monkeypox during two outbreaks of a pox-like disease in monkeys at a research facility in Denmark in 1958. The first human case was found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.
The primary route of transmission from the virus to humans is through contact with infected persons or surfaces that have been contaminated.
In addition, as reported by CNBC on Wednesday, the WHO recommends that gay and bisexual men limit sexual partners to reduce the spread of monkeypox. CNBC reports that Rosamund Lewis (WHO monkeypox expert) said that men who sex with other men have the greatest risk of contracting the disease. About 99 percent of the cases are among men, and at least 95 percent are men who have sex with other men.
A funny thing happened along the route to the name changing; it didn’t happen.
During a briefing on Wednesday, WHO officials addressed questions about the name change and implied that it may be a long road ahead for any such change.
The briefing was held just one day after New York City asked the WHO for a renaming of the virus in order to not stigmatize patients, who may then delay seeking treatment. According to YEN News, NYC has seen more cases of the disease — which the WHO declared a global health emergency, last Saturday– than any other city in the United States, with 1,092 infections detected so far.
Breaking: The @WHO has declared monkeypox a global health emergency following an upsurge in worldwide cases. pic.twitter.com/zUGyrshsOL
— BERNAMA (@bernamadotcom) July 23, 2022
The New York City Public Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan wrote to Tedros Adhanom Geyesus, the WHO chief. He seemed more worried about the monkeypox’s “devastating” and “stigmatizing” name than the possibility of a pandemic in some communities:
We have a growing concern for the potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects that the messaging around the ‘monkeypox’ virus can have on … already vulnerable communities.
Vasan referred to the “painful, racist history” within which terminology such as (monkeypox), is rooted in communities of color .”
Continuing to use the term ‘monkeypox’ to describe the current outbreak may reignite these traumatic feelings of racism and stigma — particularly for Black people and other people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and it is possible that they may avoid engaging in vital health care services because of it.
All kinds of absurd. The left, as I mentioned earlier, is more concerned about the perceived imageof the virus. This, incidentally, seems to be true (to put aside the virus name, for argument’s sake) than the virus.
The bottom line:
The left politicized the everloving crap out of COVID-19, histrionically hyping it from the outset to the point of no return, meaning there are people — most devastatingly, children — who will suffer from the effects of draconian lockdowns and ridiculous mask mandates for years, if not decades, to come.
Then along comes monkeypox.
While the virus is well-known, left-leaning media seems to have avoided reporting the bottom line on the most vulnerable people or focusing on the effects on the victims.
Now we have people more concerned about the name of monkeypox that monkeypox. What’s the solution? Simple. Modify the name. Change the name.
How liberal. It’s ironic that labels are the party!
