A Disease by Any Other Name ...

While the World Health Organization has refused to rename swine flu despite pork producers' appeals, the Obama Admistration is now referring to it as the "2009 H1N1 virus outbreak."

In my previous post, I wrote about how the World Organization for Animal Health wanted swine flu renamed North American influenza because of the loss of money the pig-flesh industry faces. Fortunately the World Health Organization has rejected a proposed name change.

"This episode started basically with that name, and the virus that is identified is a swine influenza virus," [the WHO's Keiji] Fukuda said on a conference call today. "We don't have any plans to try to introduce any new names for this disease."

Unfortunately the Obama Adminstration doesn't have the moxie to stand up to agribusiness.

"This really isn't swine flu. It's H1N1 virus," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at an afternoon news briefing with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Vilsack is the former governor of Iowa, a state with a large number of pig farms.

With the Obama Administration pussy-footing around agribusiness, it's even more important for average consumers to recognize the industry's game-playing and say, "Enough is enough." And the best way to say this is through your wallets.

Agribusiness has put more energy into its smoke-and-mirrors deception than into public safety. Enough is enough.

(Thanks to Erik Marcus at Vegan.com for linking to these stories.)

(Photo of Tom Vilsack cooking pig flesh with Hillary Clinton in 2007 courtesy of About.com.)