Sickness, death surpass official count in DRC monkeypox outbreak
Al JazeeraAPR 2023
Monkeypox should be renamed for two reasons. First, the long history of the world referring to Black people as "monkeys" creates a dangerous racist stigma that undermines public health initiatives. Second, the current name makes the virus sound like transmission only occurs between monkeys, which is factually incorrect. This hampers the world's ability to control and respond to the outbreak.
The obsession with renaming monkeypox has detracted from the world's ability to combat the virus and snuff out the outbreak. The concerns about the virus' name and the history of racial stereotyping are well intended, but there has been no evidence that stereotyping in connection with the outbreak is taking place. The use of images showing Black people with lesions, for example, does not create a stigma, and obsessing over the virus name draws more attention than is warranted.