If it can be West Nile Virus, then why not Wuhan Virus?

A’s outbreak started in mid 1990s & still continues. B’s outbreak started in the year 2019 & still continues. 

A and B both have infected lakhs of people.  

There are vaccines for neither A nor B.

A is a seasonal epidemic. B is a global pandemic. 

A has been named 'West Nile Virus' - on the basis of its place of origin.B has been named 'CoViD-19' following the WHO guidelines. 

So many similarities yet there is a difference in naming them?

The World Health Organisation (WHO), in consultation and collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), has identified best practices for naming of new human diseases, with the aim to minimise unnecessary negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, professional, regional or ethnic group. 

But,

Didn’t they offend a country, an animal, a profession, a region by naming diseases Spanish Flu, Swine Flu, Legionnaires' disease and West Nile Virus respectively? So why didn't WHO offend Wuhan by naming this virus “Wuhan Virus”? 

Does it have something to do with WHO and China’s relations on which the entire world is a bit skeptical about leading Japan’s Deputy PM to comment that the World Health Organisation should be renamed as the Chinese Health Organisation? 

Well, that could or could not be the case. Their relationship is a different subject to talk about. 

But when it comes to naming, WHO cannot be put to fault in naming this Virus CoViD-19 & not Wuhan Virus because of the date of the issue of these Guidelines. These guidelines were issued in May 2015. The tradition of christening these viruses with offensive names ended when someone brought it to WHO’s notice that names matter. The effect of diseases might fade away but the names of these viruses will go down in history for generations to come. As insignificant as naming a virus might sound, it actually carries a lot of importance with serious consequences. 

Because, 

Naming a virus on an animal can cause economic damage to sectors of farming & food supply industries and killing of those animals who might already be under the threat of extinction. 

Naming a virus on a particular culture can taint that culture forever and can make them a taboo in the society. 

Naming a virus on a country can deteriorate its image around the world and disturb its international relations. It would affect trade, business, investments, travel, education and job opportunities and what not! There have been various instances where Asian American adults and children were assaulted, verbally abused, bullied and spat on by strangers accusing them of bringing the virus to the U.S.

Nevertheless, like on searching Wuhan Virus or Chinese virus as the US President Donald Trump likes to address it, Google does not show “Did you mean CoViD-19? “ It automatically displays the CoViD-19 search result, similarly, no matter what name this fatal pandemic has been given, every time we talk about it, deep down, we definitely think of the place which gave birth to it, which concealed the actual figures of the sufferers, which first, ignored the spread of virus in its own city Wuhan and then hid the severity of the disease leading the entire world to become its victim. 

But what matters even more than the names of viruses is that the world quickly recovers from them so that these viruses would go on to become nothing but mere names in the history of mankind.