I think we should make a list of possibilities and vote on them. Maybe we can come with something a bit more catchy.
HGARV - Human gamma retrovirus
HUGAR
???
They sure didn't an easy list of letters to work with.
Im actually finding it a bit rude.. like as if a parent named a child.. and then all the childs relatives go ... "i dont like that".
This is what i feel is being done here. Where is the appreciation and gratitude towards those who are trying to do the right things for us. Why arent they getting support for their choices? Im sure they dont want to hear that patients are unhappy with the name they are choosing to call the virus.
I personally think the patients shouldnt be trying to name this illness.. if we ended up naming it, just imagine the credilitiy that may have when our already disbelieving GPs and others discover that the virus was named by patients themselves rather then by science.
(i dont doubt the badder side of the media would talk about it) It may make it even slower for it to be accepted (just like we arent already accepted due to a bad name). Since when do patients usually name their own illness? (we need to become more like normal accepted medical things). I dont want to see XMRV or whatever they are going to seriously call it, be tainted by such a thing.
(eg could XMRV become that illness which is thought by doctors as something the patients have mostly made up.. after all they even named it themselves).
........
**thumbs up for a very scientific sounding name named by the researchers and those scientifically involved and who backs us**
A name there isnt medical controversy about.
........
It concerns me that patient groups pulling all kinds of different ways on the name issue, could end up having the consequence of others stepping in to get it named and it may end up being a name we truely hate. eg say if Wessely group ended up naming it .. chronic fatigue syndrome virus CFSV . CDC's and Wessely school power, should never be underestimated.
I think it is needed to back a scientific name (which may end up being changed again anyway due to what else they find out about the virus). Support the medical ones who are backing us.