Hi, this is Julián from MinuteEarth.
In 2009, a disease swept across the globe and infected millions, and before it was officially
named 2009 H1N1 Flu, it was popularly dubbed “swine flu.”
Panicking countries banned sales of pigs and pig products, turning the pork industry on
its snout and Egypt even went so far as to slaughter all 300,000 of the country’s pigs
to stop the virus in its tracks.
The problem?
While the virus likely evolved from one that did infect pigs, the 2009 version was almost
exclusively transmitted person-to-person rather than porcine-to-person.
Regardless, the name alone triggered a pig-induced pandemonium.
But pigs aren’t in any way the only victims of a poorly named disease - historically,
we've also named viruses after groups of people or places where people live, which can direct
all that disease-associated fear and stigma onto people, and not only is that incredibly
dangerous for those people, but prejudice doesn’t actually prevent the spread of disease.
To help protect people, places, and...well, pigs from such stigma, in 2015 the World Health
Organization penned guidelines for naming new infectious diseases soon after they’re discovered.
No people, places, animals, foods, or occupations.
And avoid fear-mongering with terms like “unknown” or “fatal”.
Instead, use descriptive qualities of the disease itself, like its symptoms, severity
or seasonality, and, if known, the actual bug behind the disease, oh, and definitely
keep the name easily pronounceable.
Which is how our latest pandemic was named Coronavirus Disease 2019, abbreviated COVID-19,
for the crown-shaped coronavirus that causes the disease that emerged in 2019.
Of course, some people will still be racist or misinformed and turn their fear on the
nearest scapegoat, but at least we're trying to head off the spread of stigma by providing
standardized names before the harmful ones can go viral.
These days, the world needs all the generosity it can get, and one really easy - and free
- way to donate to a worthy cause is Tab for a Cause, which donates money to a charity
each time you open a new browser tab.
I’ve been using Tab for a Cause for at least six years and, according to my Tab for a Cause
stats page, I’ve opened over - holy tab-moly - 37,000 tabs in that time, which I've turned
into real donations to my favorite charities, including their current COVID-19 response fund.
If you, like me, open up way too many tabs, you can feel good about it by going to tabforacause.org/MinuteEarth2
and downloading the extension now.
That’s tabforacause.org/MinuteEarth2.
And there's one more way you can help the world from the comfort of your couch: stay
there, at least for now.
We're putting this video out in the midst of a pandemic and - according the World Health
Organization - the best way to make sure you don't become a carrier of the virus or infect
vulnerable people like, say, your grandparents, is to stay home or, if you absolutely have
to go out, stay far away from other people.
Let's help each other out in the comments by suggesting some awesome things to do while
you're housebound - other than watching MinuteEarth, of course.
And for a much-needed moment of distraction, here’s our latest caption contest winner.
The next image is ready for awesome caption suggestions from all levels of patrons at
patreon.com/MinuteEarth.