WHO officially renames monkeypox under pressure from Biden administration

The World Health Organization, or WHO, will officially begin using the term "mpox" instead of "monkeypox" after the Biden Administration pressured the international organization to change the name because of racial connotations associated with it.

On the international organization’s website, it says both names will be used simultaneously for a year until "monkeypox" is phased out.

"When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO," the organization said in a press release. "In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name."

The WHO is tasked with assigning names to diseases, whether new or existing. Through consultations with experts, countries, and the public, the WHO recommended that mpox be adopted as the new term in English for the disease, will become the preferred term after one year, and that "monkeypox" will remain as a searchable term for historical information.

Last week, the WHO announced it was set to change the name of "monkeypox" to "mpox" after senior Biden officials urged the WHO to make the change. The administration even reportedly threatened to adopt new terminology without the WHO’s approval.... (Read more)

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