Labels are extremely important to the left. Labels they love, like “white privilege,” “systemic racism,” “glass ceiling,” and “fair share.” On the other hand, there are labels they disdain, like “socialist,” “gun-grabber,” “wealth redistribution,” “recession” (when their guy is responsible for it), and now, “monkeypox.”

Show of hands: Who didn’t see that coming? If you’re among those who didn’t, let’s catch you up.

As my colleague Alex Parker reported in mid-June, the World Health Organization announced it was going to rename monkeypox due to the “discriminatory and stigmatizing” nature of the virus itself. The “prevailing perception,” lamented the WHO, “is that [the monkeypox virus] is endemic in people in some African countries.” It is. But let’s let that go, for a bit.

Two cases of monkeypox have been reported in the United States. And there's a small outbreak in England, Portugal, and Spain.

Here's what to know.https://t.co/JYp0YRWoWG

— NPR (@NPR) May 18, 2022

It gets worse. Via Fox News:

The prevailing perception in the international media and scientific literature is that MPXV is endemic to people in some African countries.

However, it is well established that nearly all MPXV outbreaks in Africa prior to the 2022 outbreak, have been the result of spillover from animals to humans, and only rarely have there been reports of sustained human-to-human transmissions.

According to the CDC, scientists first found monkeypox during two outbreaks of a pox-like disease in monkeys at a research facility in Denmark in 1958. The first human case was found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.

Human-to-human transmission of the virus occurs primarily through direct contact with infected people or surfaces that are contaminated.

In addition, as reported by CNBC on Wednesday, the WHO recommends that gay and bisexual men limit sexual partners to reduce the spread of monkeypox. According to CNBC, the WHO’s monkeypox expert, Rosamund Lewis, said men who have sex with men are the group at the highest risk of infection. About 99 percent of the cases are among men, and at least 95 percent are men who have sex with other men.

Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to the name change; it never happened.

During a briefing on Wednesday, WHO officials addressed questions about the name change and implied that it may be a long road ahead for any such change.

The briefing came just a day after New York City on Tuesday asked the WHO to rename the virus to avoid stigmatizing patients who might then hold off on seeking care. According to YEN News, NYC has seen more cases of the disease — which the WHO declared a global health emergency, last Saturday— than any other city in the United States, with 1,092 infections detected so far.

🚨 Breaking: The @WHO has declared monkeypox a global health emergency following an upsurge in worldwide cases. pic.twitter.com/zUGyrshsOL

— BERNAMA (@bernamadotcom) July 23, 2022

New York City public health commissioner Ashwin Vasan in a letter to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus seemed more concerned with the “devastating and stigmatizing” name of the monkeypox virus than with the potential pandemic — in certain communities — itself:

We have a growing concern for the potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects that the messaging around the ‘monkeypox’ virus can have on … already vulnerable communities.

Vasan referenced the “painful and racist history within which terminology like (monkeypox) is rooted for communities of color.”

Continuing to use the term ‘monkeypox’ to describe the current outbreak may reignite these traumatic feelings of racism and stigma — particularly for Black people and other people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and it is possible that they may avoid engaging in vital health care services because of it.

All kinds of ridiculous. As I said, earlier, the left is far more concerned with the perceived image of the virus, which, incidentally, appears to be correct (the virus name aside, for argument’s sake), based on available data, than with the virus itself.

The bottom line:

The left politicized the everloving crap out of COVID-19, histrionically hyping it from the outset to the point of no return, meaning there are people — most devastatingly, children — who will suffer from the effects of draconian lockdowns and ridiculous mask mandates for years, if not decades, to come.

Then along comes monkeypox.

While the virus has been in the news for some time, the leftwing media has seemingly gone out of its way to avoid honest bottom-line reporting on those most susceptible to its symptoms — or even to fully report on what the impact those symptoms might have on those who contract the virus.

And now we have those more worried about the name of monkeypox than monkeypox itself. The solution? Simple. Change the name. Make it sound less “discriminatory.” Less “stigmatizing.” Less “labeling.”

How liberal. How ironic from the party of labels.