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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the political-correctness-gone-more-rediculous dept.

From ScienceMag.org:

The World Health Organization (WHO) mostly works to reduce the physical toll of disease. But last week it turned to another kind of harm: the insult and stigma inflicted by diseases named for people, places, and animals. Among the existing monikers that its new guidelines "for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases" would discourage: Ebola, swine flu, Rift Valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and monkey pox. Instead, WHO says researchers, health officials, and journalists should use more neutral, generic terms, such as severe respiratory disease or novel neurologic syndrome.

Many scientists agree that disease names can be problematic, but they aren't sure the new rulebook is necessarily an improvement. "It will certainly lead to boring names and a lot of confusion," predicts Linfa Wang, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. "You should not take political correctness so far that in the end no one is able to distinguish these diseases," says Christian Drosten, a virologist at the University of Bonn, Germany.


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  • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday December 12 2015, @11:55PM

    by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Saturday December 12 2015, @11:55PM (#275614)

    Clearly the real solution would have been to forcibly mutilate his genitals.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Sunday December 13 2015, @05:55AM

    by mendax (2840) on Sunday December 13 2015, @05:55AM (#275698)

    Not a good option as I am sure you can understand. It was done to me before I could make a decision for myself. I'd never want to do that to a child, even one of his age, who could decide for himself.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @01:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @01:15PM (#275757)

    This happened so often that my home state has banned the removal of foreskin from babies.

    Decades after my wang was permanently damaged by a well meaning doctor.

    I get to hate the jewish faith. Before any arguements are presented you get to hear how this has affected my sex life.