Here are a few of the names submitted so far:
- OPOXID-22, submitted by Harvard Medical School emergency physician Jeremy Faust
- Poxy McPoxface, submitted by Andrew Yi in an allusion to Boaty McBoatface
- Mpox – a more popular submission
- MPV, MPXV, or hMPXV – the original scientific names
- TRUMP-22 aka as “Toxic Rash of Unrecognized Mysterious Provenance of 2022”
- Goblinpox
- Lightpox – instead of the more dangerous smallpox
- Bigpox – because the lesions are larger than smallpox lesion
“It’s very important we find a new name for monkeypox because this is best practice not to create any offence to an ethical group, a region, a country, an animal etc,” WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said on Tuesday.
“When you remove the monkey imagery, people seem to understand more quickly that there’s an emergency that needs to be taken seriously,” he told Reuters.
Another proposal, T, appeared to be refer to former U.S. President Donald Trump who used the controversial term “Chinese virus” for the new coronavirus.
The WHO has a mandate to assign new names to existing diseases under the International Classification of Diseases. It has already renamed monkeypox virus variants, or clades, changing them from African regions to Roman numerals.
“I am sure we will not come up with a ridiculous name,” said Chaib.
This issue is not without controversy, to say the least. The move to rename viruses has been met with opposition in the scientific community. Critics claim it may hinder scientific research. Online searches for “monkeypox” (the virus has maintained this name since its discovery in 1958) may yield incomplete results, should it be renamed something else.