Geneva — Coronavirus variants with clunky alphanumeric names have been assigned letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigma and simplify discussion and pronunciation.
The World Health Organization is new on Monday in criticism that scientists have given too complex names to strains such as South African variants called by multiple names such as B.1.351, 501Y.V2, 20H / 501Y.V2. I revealed the name.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the names people have used to describe the virus have caused controversy. Former US President Donald Trump has expressed concern that he has called the new coronavirus the “Chinese virus” and other Monicas and is using the name as a political weapon to transfer the accusations to rival countries.
WHO also urged people not to use language to advance COVID-19 profiling of people and nationalities, and said that people should avoid using country names in connection with new variants.
The four coronavirus variants, commonly known as UK, South Africa, Brazil, and India variants, which are considered of concern by UN agencies, are followed by the Greek letters alpha, beta, gamma, and delta, respectively. They are assigned in the order of. Their detection.
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Other variants of interest follow below the alphabet.
“Although they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to remember and tend to be misreported,” WHO explained the decision.
According to bacteriologist Mark Palen, who attended the meeting, the choice of the Greek alphabet was made after months of deliberation, where other possibilities such as Greek gods and invented pseudo-classical names were considered. came.
But many were already the names of brands, businesses, or foreigners.
Another idea of calling the Variant of Concern VOC1, VOC2, etc. was abolished after Palen pointed out that the pronunciation of the acronyms could sound like blasphemous words in English.
According to WHO, lost religions and names of plants and fruits were also taken into account.
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Historically, viruses are often associated with places where the virus is believed to have originated, such as the Ebola virus, named after the Congo River.
However, this can be damaging and inaccurate, like the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic of unknown cause.
“No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants,” said WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.
In the United States, Asians were harassed and attacked during a pandemic. Activists and police say Mr. Trump’s comments blamed China’s pandemic, raising anti-Asian sentiment.
President Joe Biden signed a law against COVID-19 hate crimes this month.
Prior to the new WHO scheme, some scientists adopted their own simplified nomenclature for variants, such as the February treatise using bird names. However, this was criticized because it could endanger the bird and by the mother of a girl named Robin.
(Report by Emma Farge, Additional Report by Michael Shields and John Miller, Edited by Giles Elgood and Tom Hogue)
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