Stop calling it ‘swine flu’, US agriculture secretary says
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stood up Friday for pigs and hog farmers, saying their name has been dragged through the mud by people who insist on calling the A(H1N1) influenza pandemic “swine flu.”
“Each time the media uses the phrase ‘swine flu,’ a hog farmer, their workers and their families suffer,” Vilsack said in a statement.
I’m sure they have the numbers to show it, but it doesn’t affect my eating habits. In fact, everytime I say H1N1 it reminds me that I’m saying that multi-syllabic phrase because I’m not supposed to say “Swine flu”. Does that really accomplish anything? I think not.
