Opinion: Monkeypox isn’t ‘Black’ or ‘gay’ – it’s global

"It’s been over 100 years since the Spanish Flu outbreak swept across the world. It is a disease that has become synonymous with the Covid-19 pandemic, a cautionary tale of the destruction a flu virus can have on a global population. But did you know it is not actually Spanish? That the disease itself likely did not originate in Spain?

Instead, it is named the “Spanish” flu because the Spanish media reported on this new and deadly disease, whilst other countries, beaten down by the First World War and wanting to keep morale up, simply did not.

Understandably, Spain was none too happy about being saddled with “ownership” of the killer virus, preferring to pass the buck, locally calling the H1N1 influenza strain the “French flu” and the “Soldier of Naples.” But the name stuck, all because the media at the time had hit on an “easy” shorthand for a complicated disease"