Stop calling it 'swine flu', US agriculture secretary says

**SarasotaRepub** · 09-12-2009, 02:06 PM

I'll call it anything I damn well please!!!

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stood up Friday for pigs and hog farmers, saying their name has been dragged through the mud by people who insist on calling the A(H1N1) influenza pandemic "swine flu."

"Each time the media uses the phrase 'swine flu,' a hog farmer, their workers and their families suffer," Vilsack said in a statement.

"It is simply not fair or correct to associate the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza with hogs, an animal that does not play a role in the ongoing transmission of the pandemic strain," he said.

**Rockntractor** · 09-12-2009, 02:14 PM

Bacons revenge!

**Gingersnap** · 09-14-2009, 11:25 AM

Fine with me. We'll call it 'Mexican flu'. Typically, infectious diseases are popularly named after the area where the first outbreaks are noticed: Marburg hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Hong Kong flu, Spanish influenza, etc.

**stsinner** · 09-14-2009, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Gingersnap

Fine with me. We'll call it 'Mexican flu'. Typically, infectious diseases are popularly named after the area where the first outbreaks are noticed: Marburg hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Hong Kong flu, Spanish influenza, etc.

Can you imagine the outrage? Or if we renamed the latest cases of TB found in America after their country of origin, as well... (Starts with an M and ends with exico)

**RobJohnson** · 09-15-2009, 04:02 AM

Originally Posted by Gingersnap

Fine with me. We'll call it 'Mexican flu'. Typically, infectious diseases are popularly named after the area where the first outbreaks are noticed: Marburg hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Hong Kong flu, Spanish influenza, etc.

You can catch it from tacos? :D

The swine flu has been very good to my paycheck & stock portfolio.