Quote of the day

Obama: what swine flu? 2

confused_guySwine wha ....?From an Associated Press account of a Wednesday evening White House press conference:

The news conference lasted an hour and covered topics ranging from the outbreak of swine flu — which Obama referred to as the H1N1 virus, evidently in deference to U.S. pork producers — to abortion and the recent flare-up in violence in Iraq.

Hat tip to Tom Laskawy, who first began pointing out Obama’s careful flu nomenclature on Twitter yesterday.

Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

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  1. x99x's avatar

    x99x Posted 2:12 pm
    30 Apr 2009

    Time #4!  I just finished having my little fit about it before I came here.  Thanks.

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  2. arlani Posted 2:53 pm
    30 Apr 2009

    Or, just maybe, he's calling the disease by its scientific nomenclature rather than by its vernacular name, and in doing so is showing some cultural sensitivity to the Islamic and Jewish population who might take issue with the association of uncleanliness (pigs) with an influenza outbreak.Think it through, please.

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