Could someone please make up a name for a global killer for me? I don't know enough about biology or virology to come up with anything plausible. It can be entirely made up or based on an existing virus with a new mutation nomenclature. I already have a nickname for the disease, and the mechanics of the thing won't be addressed beyond the symptoms, which, if it matters, include the rapid, simultaneous failure and then liquification of every major organ, including the skin. Basically, a few hours after fever sets in, the victim is dead and looks like they may have looked inside the Ark of the Covenant. I wouldn't mind if the name of the virus involved a recognizable modifier like "strain" or "simplex" or something. "strain" has already been overused in sci-fi though. Any ideas?
I did a little snooping, and there appear to be two major schools when it comes to the naming of viruses these days. You can go the really scientific method (like H1N1) which is a system that taps the structural components of the virus itself for the naming, or you can do it old-skool and name it in a more linguistically organic fashion, using (perhaps) where it originated, or what it does as its name source. http://www.virology.ws/2009/08/07/how-viruses-are-classified/
In the Rifters Trilogy, Petter Watts named his Doomsday Virus as βehemoth. He uses the Beta letter after the Beta Life because it is built with RNA bases instead. Also, Behemoth seems to be some green eater animal mentioned in the Bible (and his virus consumes sulphur like some soil bacteria). Anyway, I think any combination/mystic name you made up would be just fine. Once the reader get used to that name, he/she won't change it for anything else.
A cryptic one, like GCX-4B, used by scientists and a more ear-friendly one (purple fever) for the media. Tuberculosis ( TBC ) was called Morbus hungaricus (Hungarian disease) in the early 20th century because of the high number of infections in the country (25% of the population)
That was helpful. I always assumed there was more scientific reasoning behind the naming of diseases long before the 1960's. I never would have guessed that "Influenza" was actually archaic, linguistically speaking. We've been using various versions of taxonomy for other forms of life for hundreds of years. The methodology has changed a bunch of times, but there were systems in place. It looks like I still need a scientific name for it that's specifically related to the chemistry. People call it the Ark Virus, but I have no idea what label the CDC epidemiologist would put on the vials and test tubes. I know even less about chemistry than biology. Maybe the Latin: Cutis Defectum No. That won't work.
Or you can go the describes the symptoms approach like SARS or AIDS (Severe affected respiratory syndrome an acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Or you could go with the a description of how it spreads , like Malaria … originally thought to spread through the air Mal Aria
I like irony. I would probably write about a virus initially designed to cure a horrible malady or deformity, but either had an unintended long term lethal outcome, or mutated into a killer. So I would probably name it something like the Hope virus, or Eterna. Either that or something ambiguous like Archangel.
Filovirus (Ebola and Marburg are examples of this virus family type) Or a variant of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) pleiotropic cytokine. This cytokine isn't very well understood, however, it is produced by virtually every type of immune cell and can modulate the immune response. It's usually seen after the onset of a cytokine storm. Its function is to 'calm things down'. However, if this malfunctions. You're dead. . You may also want to familiarize yourself with what a cytokine storm is. Especially since there is a lot of hype around this particular choice of wording. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294426/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28555385 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378830/ (role of cytokines as a double edged sword in sepsis)
I like this. It would let you be creative and think up something that sounds ugly. MRSA: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Or do what we Brits do - Clostridium Difficile or C.Difficile. If it's really nasty, call it something French!
I've tentatively nicknamed it the Ark Virus due to the visible, outward symptoms in the final stage of the virus (somewhere around day three) resembling a slower version of what happens to the Nazis who open the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders. The idea is that it causes cellular walls to lose integrity, effectively liquefying organs, including the skin. There also happens to be a biblical element to the story, mostly to do with a crazy rapture cult, so the name works for them too, but I'm using some of these links and suggestions to finalize a name for the CDC to use.
the trouble with that is that it references a really old film ... the tabloid press and social media aren't likely to pick Ark virus over "Flesh melting zombie plague"
Except that no one would ever seriously call anything the "flesh melting zombie plague" outside of a zombie comedy film any more than they'd call leprosy the "bits falling off of you zombie plague". There are no zombies in this story, just an apocalypse. The first name people hear usually sticks, so these days the media always dictates the name, and they usually get that name from nerd scientists. I'm not entirely set on the name, but I do like it. I don't think the Ark of the Covenant (the one from Judaism, Christianity and Islam) or Raiders of the Lost Ark (a seminal film most twelve-year-old action fans have seen) are too obscure for reference. Maybe I'm wrong. I did grow up in a church, and I did see Raiders as a small child in the eighties, but it almost wouldn't matter if the public got the reference anyway. Most people can't tell you what SARS stands for, or even that it's an acronym. Either way, I feels it's more likely than "The Omega Virus", "The Andromeda Strain", "The Legacy Virus" or any of a hundred fictional plagues with names that have tenuous at best relationships with the taxonomy, symptoms or origins of their respective diseases.
You have a higher opinion of the twitterati than I do - during the recent ebola out break and the hysteria around that there were plenty of articles about "the deadly tropical virus that eats your flesh" doing the rounds - the likelihood is that people will either use the official name or they'll use something that describes the symptoms... its not likely that anyone dealing with a virus that is liquefying the face of the victims will thing hmm yes this reminds me of what happened to the Nazi's in raiders
You could create all sorts of things that much more of a hassle than bad cold. The nano-machines turning everything into more machines with any and all atoms to fabricate more in the first place. The Grey Goo Scenario, leaving an unsafe surface, like a silvery sea of ravenous nanites that only want to make more of their own at the consequence of whatever it can find. Nobody really wants to go with the Mumbo Jumbo Virus XYZ, that creates living things into inept cannibals rotting in the flat above yours, while grinding grandmum up in a blender before shuffling down the motorway to share his new hobbies with his office mates. A more plausible approach is having mad-cow disease leap from cows to humans, and become air borne. Nothing more lovely than getting sick and having your brain turned to Swiss cheese, all because that prick at the market didn't cover his mouth when he sneezed. I could go on and on, but the options are endless when you spend some time to think about it. Perhaps a virulent strain of flu infused with a radioactive isotope, that gives you the added bonus of your hair falling out every time you start a coughing fit, while your cells are slowly shredded by all that fun rad poisoning while your hold up in the bathroom trying not to lose your colon to the sewage system. Good luck, and I hope you find your world ravaging illness that cripples humanity.
You really think I should call it "the flesh melting plague"? I can't tell if your joking. That sounds nothing like any disease has ever been named before. "The deadly tropical virus that eats your flesh" is a headline with shock value. I doubt anyone called it that. Right? Don't get me wrong. I understand what you're saying about the public, I guess, but the twitterati doesn't name viruses. They name celebrity couples and hashtag movements and ruin teen slang by popularizing it with adults. Like most disease names in modern reality, my fictitious virus will have a name chosen by a scientist or reporter and popularized through mainstream and social media, possibly with an explanation of the nomenclature, possibly not. All I would need is an explanation from the narrator that the first news story to go viral, a local news cast in a third-world country, featured a still from the film and the name just stuck. Then I need an acronym like VCMC, so a news caster or blogger can report thing like (but better) "The Centers for Disease Control, in cooperation with the World Health Organization, released a new report today raising the official death toll from VCMC to an astounding seventeen percent of the world's population. Viral Cellular Membrane Collapse, commonly known as the Ark Virus was first reported only three months ago and already... blah blah, etc."
That's neat, but it would be a very different setting and story altogether. I'd watch that movie, but again, this is not a zombie story. In fact, the virus is hardly central to the story. It's a backdrop. It still has to have a name. ETA: This is actually not far from the explanation I have worked up. Nice.
You've got two names - the one by which the CDC refer to it which will be either scientific pseudo latin tag or a symptom description like SARS or a alpha numeric like H1N1 ... CDC definitely won't name it the ark virus then you've got the popular name - like the black death, plague, whooping cough, smallpox is the name by which the populous as a whole will refer to it - if the CDC name is simple an easy to say it may be both names (like Ebola, SARS etc) if the scientic name is long and complicated and doesn't easily form an acronym , the media will come up with a more memorable and likely dramatic name if you want that name to be the ARK virus there needs to be a better reason than the symptoms look a bit like a scene out of a thirty year old film
I'm over this conversation. You obviously didn't read the second half of my paragraph or you wouldn't be trying to explain things to me I already explained clearly myself. I don't know why you're arguing so vehemently about a name I already said was a bit of a place holder anyway. We officially disagree about the movie and the biblical reference you're ignoring. I'm not going to change your mind, and you're not helping me, so please move on with your day, and let me get on with mine.
You're not going to get much help with an attitude like that, I did read your post … (and the reason I'm ignoring the biblical reference is that its irrelevant - faces don't melt from the ark of of the covenant in the bible - if you wanted a biblical reference you'd need a plague of boils such as those visited on the people of Gath, or tumors as inflicted on the people of Ashod... but that's even more obscure ) End of the day you can call your fictional virus whatever you like - but here's a thought if you don't want help deciding if something is realistic/workable, don't ask for it
*sidesteps the fray* When I say the words “Ark virus” aloud it works with—spelling them the way we say them—“Mersa”, “Sars”, “Aids” and “Ebola”. So, what if you came up with an acronym that uses ARK? Then you could still use the old movie thing but it’s secondary. “Aquired...something something.” “Active something something.” “Something Replicating Something”. “Something Something Keratitis”. (ETA: Or something something Ketosis. That sounds bad.) You get the idea. ETA: If you wanted to add the biblical thing my first thought was the “two by two” thing of Noah’s Ark so you could have the virus cells replicate in even pairs or something.
"Millions have been affected by a new virus in the past few days. Symptoms include growing a long straggly beard, the need to build giant wooden boats, and collecting two of everything. We'll return after we take a look at the weather. So what do you have for us this weekend Tom?"
Don't talk about my attitude. Actually, I'm quite grateful to everyone who made suggestions and even offered some very helpful links without being rude. You offered less comprehensive versions of advice that had already been given and then argued with me and made fun of one of my ideas and wouldn't let up. What sort of attitude do you think that suggests? I said I wasn't wild about the name Ark Virus and I'm not. I like it more than Flesh Melting Zombie Plague, but I think Ark Virus sounds like something out of 90's cyberpunk anime. Still, I'm not ready to disregard it entirely because I like the Indiana Jones reference, and so would a lot of readers. Would we name a virus that in real life? Maybe not, but the story about an obscure news cast going viral on YouTube showing a wildly inappropriate clip of a Nazi's face melting fits the modicum of satire I hope to achieve just beautifully. So does an apocalypse cult not knowing the Bible well enough to know that opening the Ark of the Covenant wouldn't release a plague and has nothing to do with the rapture. What I actually disagreed with was your repeated insistence that a thirty-year-old film is too old to reference in a book. I still do. Ernest Cline is making millions doing nothing but that, so I think it's fine. Can't you accept my disagreement without resorting to belittling tactics like reductio ad absurdum? You made up your own version of my idea and then reduced it to something ludicrous. Yes, that would be ridiculous, especially in a serious book, but it's not what I said is it? By itself that one jab isn't that big a deal, but it was one of several, so I asked you to quit. If you still think I've done something to deserve you coming back at me with more of the same, then I apologize for whatever it was. Now please stop.
Oddly enough, I was considering, if I keep it at all, combining the two and pointing out in derisive narration how long it took the eggheads to match up a name after they already stubbornly decided on the acronym. The narrator's voice is a little Douglass Adams/Christopher Moore inspired, but misanthropic. The problem is, it actually is difficult to match. I spent a while in a thesaurus trying to find any word that even resembled the symptom starting with A, R or K. I'll keep at it though. I always need more procrastination projects, right?
