Swine Flu Renamed To Please Pork Producers
Pork -- It's What's For News.
Lobbyists’ requests to the World Health Organization to rename the swine flu to something more innocuous were denied the other day. Predictably, the name ’swine flu’ has had people scrambling away from pork products. Egypt has slaughtered its 300,000 pigs in its effort to prevent local outbreak (link).
The name “is jeopardizing and may cause serious losses to swine producers all over the world,” wrote Pedro de Camargo Neto, president of the Sao Paulo-based Brazilian pork exporters association, in a letter today to WHO director general Margaret Chan.
While I often scoff at the bowing of the government to “The Man”, the pork lobbyists do have some valid points. First of all, as the CDC reminds us via twitter, “you can NOT get swine flu from eating pork” (link). Furthermore, it is named the swine flu because of its similarity to a type of virus that infects pigs not because all pigs are carrying it. In fact, all the pigs that have been tested have not got it. Whereas this flu is definitely a mutation of a the virus that does infect swine (it’s been described as a mash-up between the human, avian, and swine influenza viruses), it is being transmitted person to person.
Not everyone is going to take the time to research or understand why ’swine flu’ was given the name, and so will avoid eating pork to stave off an attack. And so, to save the industry from “unjustified” attacks, the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has stepped in to rename the swine flu the “2009 H1N1 virus outbreak”.
Vilsack said the change came after Obama officials heard protests from the meat and grain industries. “It is significant, because there are a lot of hardworking families whose livelihood depends on us conveying this message of safety,” said Vilsack, ” … and we want to reinforce the fact that we’re doing everything we possibly can to make sure that our hog industry is sound and safe and to make sure that consumers in this country and around the world know that American products are safe.”
While American products seem to carry less risk than say, Chinese products (lead, melamine), it is a tough to row to hoe that they are completely safe. The recent pistachio recall and peanut butter fiasco are just a couple of instances that come to mind when considering how safe our products are. The CDC reports an “upswing” in food-borne illnesses and suggests a complete reworking of the nation’s food safety system (link). So, swine flu may not be coming directly from swine, but Vilsack and the pork industry, etc. must admit that there are other dangers lurking in the American food chain. That’s just being pedantic about it, though.
Unfortunately for the pork producers, the psychology of the matter is that the swine flu began as the “swine flu”. The media, blogosphere, and twitter are all about swine flu. In the discussions and CDC alerts, it will remain the swine flu. Plus, “2009 H1N1 virus outbreak” is too long and a lot more complicated. The collective psyche will reject it. If the outrage at the pork industry is to be quelled, pork producers and other interested parties will need to do some real leg work, spend some real money, and educate the populace about the facts of the 2009 H1…ah, screw it, the swine flu.
UPDATE: The CDC emergency tweets have been compromised, but it still bows to the community desires (see #swineflu):
CDCemergency UPDATED – 2009 H1N1 case count in U.S.-AZ 1, CA 14, IN 1, KS 2, MA 2, MI 1, NV 1, NY 50, OH 1, SC 10, TX 26. http://bit.ly/19fDC8 #swineflu
April 29, 2009
Tags: agriculture, bacon, education, farmers, food event, Health, marketing, policy Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology
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