WHO To Phase Out The Name Monkeypox Over Racism Concerns
The monkeypox fervor has kind of died down in recent months, but that has given the World Health Organization time to make a call: the name monkeypox is racist.
According to a press release, WHO consulted with "global experts" — they didn't elaborate on what these people were experts in — and have decided to use the term "mpox" moving forward because of "racism concerns."
They cited "racist and stigmatizing" language online as the reason for several individuals and countries raising concerns.
Mpox and monkeypox will be used interchangeably for the next year while the latter is phased out.
Good to see the World Health Organization has its priorities straight. This is a great use of time and resources.
Not like they could've been figuring out how to prevent monkeypox... I'm sorry, mpox.
Things must have been slow around the WHO offices, so they've changed monkeypox to mpox. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Nice To See WHO Focusing On The Real Problems
If they spent as much time trying to fight and cure things instead of renaming them, we'd all be in good shape right now.
There was an outbreak in 2003 as well, which means the name had been on the books for 20 years without any complaints. Like always, racism needs to be found everywhere we look.
The vast majority of people never had a racist thought cross their mind when they heard the term "monkeypox." Most of us assumed it was no different than any other pox named for an animal like chickenpox or cowpox.
It's like so many other things: an overreaction to a virtually non-existent problem.
I'm sick of getting into these battles over semantics, plus here's the reality: the term monkeypox will still be used more frequently by the general public than mpox. That's just because it's what people have become accustomed to.
Just because WHO says we should use a term, doesn't mean you have to. Effectively making their long discussions with "experts" a complete waste of time.
Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle