Calling swine flu "Mexican" is OK?!

Now, how strange is this? Israeli Health Minister protesting that the swine flu should be called "Mexican flu", since calling it swine is "offending". Well, let me be the bigot here, if pigs are not "clean" anyways, what's wrong with calling swine flu swine flu? Whatever we call it, wish it goes away soon....the Dow is actually up now, after a dip during the opening. Biotech stocks up significantly (several folds!). CNN as usual dramatised the outbreak so far and their newscasters talked frantically on TV - though I agree with being more cautious than not. Outrageously a brain-dead American fund manager (the classic "I-dont-have-a-passport and dont know what's happened outside of the US" kind) on CNBC said that "oh I am sure swine flu is no big deal....just like SARS last time, it was not big deal, my doctor overreacted and gave me Tamiflu and there's no use for it".

(The Associated Press, April 27, 2009) The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday. Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel. Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.
Scientists are unsure where the new swine flu virus originally emerged, though it was identifed first in the United States. They say there is nothing about the virus that makes it "Mexican" and worry such a label would be stigmatizing.