It seems that there were some concerns and proof that the pork industry was having difficulty getting "this little piggy to market," due to now the psychological connections between the virus and the carrier. Except the World Heath Organization has also now qualified its stance on just whether or not pigs ARE the actual carriers.
Or just how it is transmitted between pigs and humans, although as a virus primarily attacking the respiratory system there is absolutely not a shred of evidence to suggest that ingesting or eating pork is connected. Unlike the e coli virus which has been proven can be transmitted by ingestion of both raw infected eggs and poultry.
Here are some other animals and insects who have been connected, fairly or not, to human disease:
dogs, cats, bats, skunks, raccoons - rabies
cows - "hoof and mouth," "Mad Cow" disease
ticks - Lyme disease
mosquitoes - West Nile, yellow fever, malaria
chickens,eggs - ecoli
tuna, shellfish - mercury poisoning
apes, monkeys - HIV
The swine, unfortunately, also has that carryover bad rap in other cultures and some religious connections to overcome as far back as biblical times due to both allegorical connections and dietary prohibitions, and its propensity in times past to be a carrier of disease before the refrigerator and freezer were invented.
It seems the pig family is now suffering from unfair discrimination.
Since 10,000 times the amount of lives have been lost due to the open Southwest borders in Ms. Napolitano's former home state, this former Arizonan wishes she would have been so "Johnny on the spot" protecting Arizonans eight long years ago after 9/11 and prior to the now Mexican drug wars and kidnappings there. They appear to be still conducting business as usual.
A suggestion was made by one of the directors of the WHO that maybe a contest should be run in order to rename the virus to give it a less scientific, and more commercially accepted identifier within the non-Latin speaking, scientifically challenged portion of the population.
I came up with several:
Hog Native
Hemispheric Navigational (globally transferred)
Hispanic Neutral (originating in Mexico, affecting anyone)
or how about:
The HeiNie Virus (you know, as in "backside")
USDA and WHO: Are those politically correct?
Maybe we should just call it "Global Economy Meltdown Sydrome" (GEMS). That surely is a psychological boost for the pigs, supermarket and people.
I think personally I just might fast.
Here is the link on the New York Times "politically correct" article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/health/01name.html
