Attempts to have a serious conversation about what to rename monkeypox have been hijacked by people trying to call it Poxy McPoxface.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has – perhaps questionably – decided to open up the process of naming the disease to the public, amid concerns about the current name having racist connotations.
Unsurprisingly, Poxy McPoxface is among the options to have since been submitted, after a ship was notoriously (nearly) christened ‘Boaty McBoatface’ following a public vote.
Other suggestions for names for the rapidly spreading illness include TRUMP-22 and Mpox.
Traditionally, disease names are generally arrived at with the help of a technical committee working behind closed doors.
But for monkeypox, submissions can now be made via this link.
After a slow start, dozens of submissions have now been made from a range of contributors including academics, doctors, and a gay community activist.
Andrew Yi submitted the idea of Poxy McPoxface, in tribute to Boaty McBoatface, which was almost the name of a British polar research vessel.
There were also technical suggestions, like OPOXID-22, submitted by Harvard Medical School emergency physician Jeremy Faust.
The WHO said it would decide among the proposals ‘according to their scientific validity, their acceptability, their pronounceability (and) whether they can be used in different languages’.
Spokesperson Fadela Chaib promised on Tuesday: ‘I am sure we will not come up with a ridiculous name.’
Pressure is growing for a new name for the disease, with critics pointing out that it is misleading, since monkeys are not the original animal host.
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A group of leading scientists also wrote a position paper in June calling for a ‘neutral, non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing’ name, amid concern that the current terminology is being used in a racist way.
Until this year, monkeypox had mainly spread only in a group of countries in west and central Africa.
But last month the disease, first discovered in 1958 and named after the first animal to show symptoms, has been declared a public health emergency.
More than 32,000 cases from over 80 countries have been reported in the new outbreak.
Ms Chaib explained: ‘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.
‘The WHO is very concerned by this issue and we want to find a name that is not stigmatising.’
No timeline has been given for the proposal.
One of the more popular submissions so far is Mpox, submitted by Samuel Miriello, director of men’s health organization Rezo, which is already using the name in its outreach campaigns in Montreal, Canada.
‘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, TRUMP-22, appears to refer to former U.S. President Donald Trump, who called Covid-19 the ‘China virus’.
But the submission’s author claimed the suggestion stood for ‘Toxic Rash of Unrecognized Mysterious Provenance of 2022’.
Submissions mocking the gay community had earlier been posted but were later removed from the WHO site.
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