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Editorial
Why not 'chicken' or 'human' flu?
Friday, November 6, 2009
Pork producers have been unfairly paying for the bad rap pigs have been taking since the onset of H1N1 or "swine flu."
Some countries have needlessly killed hogs, and China, the fastest growing market for U.S. pork exports, banned the meat because of the false fear that humans could contract H1N1 from consuming pork.
The truth is, more Americans and their pets have been killed or sickened by contaminated Chinese food products than any harm American food could have caused, but that's another topic altogether.
The fact is, the virus resulted from the mixing of human, bird and, yes, swine virus strains.
Yet many national media, National Public Radio in particular, persists in calling H1N1 "swine flu."
It's unfair to persist in using that label when it has such a devastating effect on a single industry.