Wokes still determined to change the name of monkeypox

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in June that it was working to change the name of monkeypox . There is no news on what the new name will be. The changes follow complaints from some scientists and activists who consider the word monkey to be "discriminatory and stigmatizing" because, they argue, it has often been derogatorily linked to blacks. However, according to the Public Broadcasting Service (NRP), the International Taxonomy Committee will maintain the term monkey in the new nomenclature.

The word 'monkey' is "racist"

For Dr. Ifeanyo Nsofor, New Voices Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, "monkeypox should be renamed for two main reasons...First, there is a long history of referring to blacks as monkeys. So, monkeypox is racist and stigmatizes blacks," he told NPR.

In a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the New York City health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, We are increasingly concerned about the potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects that messages about the HIV virus can have on our society," he said. monkeypox can have on an already vulnerable community.

New York now has 1,400 cases of monkeypox. In Illinois there are at least 500 and in California 800 have been confirmed , according to data released by the Department of Public Health.

Elliot Lefkowitz, data secretary for the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), explained that "the consensus is that the use of the name monkey is sufficiently separated from any pejorative context that there is no reason for any change."

No proposals

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist, said last week, "To my knowledge, we have not received any proposal for a name to replace monkeypox." The process is still open to suggestions. The WHO, along with more than 29 scientists, is reportedly working on changing the name of the virus that has generated an emergency in states such as Illinois, California and New York.

According to WHO, monkeypox is a zoonotic viral infection that can spread from animals to humans and from person to person . Those most at risk of severe disease are pregnant women, children and immunocompromised persons.