"The H1N1 viral strain implicated in the 2009 flu pandemic among humans often is called "swine flu" because initial testing showed many of the genes in the virus were similar to influenza viruses normally occurring in North American swine.[51] Further research has shown that three-quarters or six out of the eight gene segments of the 2009 virus arose from the 1998 North American swine flu strains which emerged from the first-ever reported triple-hybrid virus of 1998.[44][44][47][47][48]
In late April, Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization's director-general, declared a "public health emergency of international concern" under the rules of the WHO's new International Health Regulations when the first two cases of the H1N1 virus were reported in the United States, followed by hundreds of cases in Mexico.[52][53] Following the initial cases in the USA and Mexico, on May 2, 2009, it was reported in pigs at a farm in Alberta, Canada, with a link to the outbreak in Mexico. The pigs are suspected to have caught this new strain of virus from a farm worker who recently returned from Mexico, then showed symptoms of an influenza-like illness.[54] These are probable cases, pending confirmation by laboratory testing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza"The linguistic relativity principle (also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) is the idea that the varying cultural concepts and categories inherent in different languages affect the cognitive classification of the experienced world in such a way that speakers of different languages think and behave differently because of it. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
International Agencies Try to End Flu Naming Wars!
From the outset, health agencies and scientists have used a variety of monikers to describe the pathogen. "Mexican flu" and "swine flu" were considered controversial because they could stigmatize Mexicans or induce irrational fears of pigs or pork. So a plethora of alternatives has resulted. WHO has stuck with "influenza A(H1N1)," a term criticized by scientists as ambiguous because there's a seasonal A(H1N1) strain circulating as well. Others have called the pathogen anything from "swine-origin influenza virus" and "novel influenza H1N1" to "influenza A(H1N1)v," in which "v" stands for "variant."-- http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/07/international-a.html
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (the 'Korzybski' annexation came later) claims that the structure of a language defines the way a person behaves and thinks -- http://nobeliefs.com/Sapir-Whorf-Korzybski.htm
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