Swine Flu - Let's Not Blame The Swines

The airwaves are flooded these days with news about the Swine Flu. Kids in Mexico City aren’t allowed to go to school anymore, restaurants are only serving take-out food anymore and my mother is in the midst of her Caribbean cruise planning which involves the apparently realistic scenario of her having to disinfect the entire boat on a daily basis. Knowing my parents and the inherent space limitations of such sanitary mission, my father will more than likely only be allowed to bring one pair of shorts.

Now I don’t mean to be joking around this rather serious topic but I am not a big fan of the naming of the Swine Flu. Then again I could also never befriend myself with the term mad cow disease either.

But here’s why swine flu won’t work.

1. Some societies and religions consider pigs to be very dirty animals, to the point where they don’t eat pork. Will Jewish mothers not treat their sick children because they’ve got the Swine Flu?  I don’t think that will be the case, but regardless, the name of the flu carries some weird implications in certain cultures. To the point that the Israeli Health Ministry has renamed swine flu to Mexico flu. That isn’t right either.

2.  People are dying of the Swine Flu.  And even the ones who survive are presented with a burdened future. I can just see myself having to explain to my grandchildren that in my twenties I had the Swine Flu. That will take some serious explaining.

3. Personally I love pigs. They’re highly intelligent animals and not dirty. In case you were wondering why pigs like to roll around in mud, it’s because they don’t have functional sweat glands so they use the mud to cool themselves down and to protect their skin from sunburn.   So let’s not drag the swine’s reputation into the dirt anymore.

The name swine flu is definitely highly newsworthy and has brought immediate worldwide attention to the issue. Now I think we need to come up with a better name. Any ideas?

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