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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   13320 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025

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Flu is almost always symptomatically indistinguishable from COVID. Not very many people need to know or care about the exact taxonomy of a moderate respiratory infection, and frankly speaking, most doctors don't either. To the minor extent that treatment might differ, we'd mentally just keep that bit in mind. It would hardly be the worst name in the world.

Flu is almost always symptomatically indistinguishable from COVID

My theory is that it was much more widespread in the US than anyone admitted because testing was constrained early on, and a lot of first-wave cases got called flu with no further diagnostics.

I'm not sure why there are so many people insisting that we should have used a more inexact name for this disease just because it fits a certain naming scheme (or geopolitical interest).

There's a clear different memetic impact depending on whether people mentally bucketed covid as 'a new potentially-deadly virus' or 'a new strain of the flu', so that was always an important territory to fight over.

The implication with "Wuhan flu"/"Chinese flu" etc comparisons was that it was comparable to the Spanish flu, which is our primary modern point of reference for a communicable disease that kills a lot of people.

The implication of calling it ‘Kung flu’ ‘chink virus’ ‘Chinese cringe aids’ etc was, in the minds of those actually calling it that ‘it’s a flu. It’s way overblown.’

Remember when we all pretended it was a rule not to name diseases after places? That was fun.

Or name them after monkeys because of homosexuals?

Again, I'm not sure why people are insisting on this. Is there something particular gained, apart from - again - the geopolitical interest?

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