• West Nile Virus West Nile District of Uganda

• Guinea Worm Guinea coast of West Africa

• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Mountain range spreading across western North America

• Lyme Disease Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut

• Ross River Fever Ross River of Queensland, Australia

• Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever Omsk, Russia

• Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Ebola River in Zaire

• Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Middle Eastern peninsula

• Valley Fever San Joaquin Valley of California

• Marburg Virus Disease Marburg, Germany

• Norovirus Named after Norwalk, Ohio

• Zika Fever Zika Forest in Uganda

• Japanese Encephalitis Japan

• German Measles Named after the German doctors who first described it. Also referred to as “Rubella.”

• Spanish Flu Spain

• Lassa Fever Lassa, Nigeria

• Legionnaire’s Disease Named after an outbreak of people that were attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.

So let me ask why now, is it critical that we not label a disease with the location in its name? If anything, it’s contrary to helping stem the disease (wink).

From:

“West Nile Virus, you say? Well, I’m staying the hell away from there!”

To:

“Covid-19, you say? Well, I don’t know what the hell that’s supposed to mean!”