WHO gives new name to SARS-CoV-2 variant to avoid stigma tránh

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on May 31 that the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants will be called according to the Greek alphabet to avoid stigmatizing the countries where they were first discovered.
The new naming system applies to variants of interest, of which the four most worrisome are in circulation and the latter are of concern.

“The new naming does not replace the scientific names of the variants, but can aid in public discussion,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical team leader on Covid-19. Other SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest will be labeled with the words “Epsiloon”, “Zeta”, “Eta”, “Theta” and “Iota”. (Artwork: BBC) Under the new system, the British variant (B.1.1.7) is called “Alpha”, the South African variant (B.1.351) is “Beta”, the Brazilian variant (P1) is “Gamma”. The Indian variant B.1.617 is divided into sub-lineages, where the B.1.617.2 variant is called “Delta” and the B.1.617.1 variant is called “Kappa”. Names such as variant B.1.1.7.2 will continue to be used in scientific circles, because of the mutational information their names convey. “Despite their advantages, scientific names can be difficult to say and remember, and easily misinterpreted. As a result, people often refer to variants by the places where they were first discovered, causing stigma and discrimination,” according to the WHO statement. “To avoid this and simplify mass communication, WHO encourages authorities, national media and everyone else to use these new names,” the WHO said. The Greek alphabet has 24 letters and WHO has not yet planned what to do next if all 24 letters are used. According to AFP, “Epsilon”, “Zeta”, “Eta”, “Theta” and “Iota” are names for variants of interest.