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take the swine out of the swine flu?

By American Girl in Italy on April 29, 2009 at 1:45 PM in Current Affairs

It’s been a tough year for the pig….

We had lipstick on a pig.
lipstick20on20a20pig20obamalipstick-on-porkmedia-lipstick-pigporkobamastimulusbill

We had wasteful pork in the porkulus bill.
cnp2009010932652_pv porkulus-cartoon-300x227 pork-instead-of-puppy porkulus2

We had pork pigs spending tax payer money on stupid pork projects.

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We had sexist pigs revealed all during the campaign.

And we even had some of our favorite politicians unfairly being charachtured as pigs.
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And now we have the swine flu.
APTOPIX Swine Flu

It’s starting to feel a little bit like porky’s revenge…

Anyway, the US wants to change the name from swine flu to “H1N1 Virus”.

For U.S. pork producers the swine flu name has hurt, forcing government officials into the position of stressing that American pork is safe to eat and that other countries should not ban imports.

Pork, soybean and corn prices have fallen in the last two days, “and if this continues, obviously you have significant potential, which is why it’s important to get this right,” Vilsack said.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there was also talk of stripping the “swine” from swine flu, which CDC acting director Richard Besser said was leading to the misapprehension that people can catch the disease from pork.

“That’s not helpful to pork producers. That’s not helpful to people who eat pork. It’s not helpful to people who are wondering, how can they get this infection,” Besser told a briefing.

Israel has already rejected the name swine flu, and opted to call it “Mexico flu.” But, that’s not a good name. The virus is already global.

While I am not opposed to changing the name, I do sympathize with pork farmers who are being unfairly hurt by this flu, I don’t think the name “H1N1 Virus” is going to catch on. It’s not catchy enough. But, since it did originate with a pig, perhaps we can change the name without changing the meaning? chris_matthews_ds_297

Perhaps the Tweety Virus is a better name?

Hmm, although, that is unfair to Tweety Bird.

How about Tingle Titus Virus?

Or the Keith Krud?

Favreau Fever?

Matthews Malady?

Shuster Syndrome?

Blight of Olby?