yup. Thats how they determine the names of specific viruses, its origins followed by the year. If the location cannot be determined then the original host is used

Just like it totally wouldn't be racist or xenophobic for Chinese people to call Mad Cow Disease American Beef Disease.

@WilyRickWiles how man Americans you think would take offense to that?

@WilyRickWiles: First, interesting that you would choose mad-cow disease to try to attribute something to the US. Since Mad-cow disease originated in Europe in the 70s and I can no longer donate blood due to the time i was stationed in Germany and its relationship to mad-cow disease. I could probably help you find a better choice as there are lots of negative things attributable to the US. (There’s a linguist thing that talks about people who speak three or more languages, being called polyglots, people who speak two languages are called bilingual, and what do you call people who only speak one language? Americans. - negative? Yes. True to some extent? Yes. Offensive? Maybe.) I have some others that may be more offensive to some, I guess.

Second, I imagine most pre-pubescent, spoiled children would take offense to hearing something they didn’t like to hear.

Finally, when I was in grad school my wife and I almost died from something called the A-Shanghai flu (or something like that). I couldn’t get out of bed or even remember much of what went on for a week and at the end of that week, my wife couldn’t get out of bed. After a day of both of us being in bed and my 2 year old having to fend for herself, I crawled out of bed and managed not to pass out while driving myself to the doctor to get some help. It was serious enough that he grabbed his bag and cane to my house to treat my wife. Of course that wasn’t as serious of a flu epidemic as the “Hong Kong Flu” in 1968 I think.

My point is that this silliness about naming conventions is a relatively new phenomenon brought about by infantile génération that was taught to whine about the injustice the color of the sky or the unfairness that Joey got more desert than they did. The naming convention used to be tied to the origine (as far as was known) of the flu. (The Spanish flu didn’t originate in Spain, but it was thought at first that it did so the name stuck). I’ve wasted way too much time talking about a stupid topic, but I guess that’s what we do sometimes.

@Daveclark5 China famously banned American beef for years because of our problem with mad cow disease.

@WilyRickWiles good for them. Maybe they were as confused as you.

@Daveclark5 Amazing how easily you lose your composure.

@WilyRickWiles I can see how that may have looked like I was angry and striking out. I wasn’t. I honestly believe they have the right to stop purchasing beef, chicken, or dogs from the US if they like. Good for them that they don’t feel obligated to continue purchasing something they think is tainted... even if they were confused as to where the tainted beef originated like you were about the origin of the mad-cow disease.

I guess I shouldn’t give short answers that can easily be misinterpreted. As I said, I have spent way too much time on this silly subject, but that’s what happens when I choose not to just ignore.My mistake. Hope this helps.

@Daveclark5 You might want to lay off making assumptions too.