Coronavirus variants now have a new name (which is not about where they came from)

The English variant of coronavirus will be called Alpha, the South African Beta, and so on. Stop the discriminating combination of geography in favor of the letters of the Greek alphabet

(Photo: Pixabay) The coronavirus variants change their name, against discrimination. Although each has (and will keep) its own scientific name (for example B.1.1.7), the World Health Organization (WHO) has considered it appropriate to add a new simpler nomenclature, with letters of the Greek alphabet. The aim is to avoid that from now on, especially in the popular field, the mutated forms of the pathogen are recognized through a geographical location, which is incorrect and, in fact, discriminating.

Here's how we will learn to call them.

Today, @WHO announces new, easy-to-say labels for # SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) & Interest (VOIs)

They will not replace existing scientific names, but are aimed to help in public discussion of VOI / VOC

Read more here (will be live soon):

https://t.co/VNvjJn8Xcv # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/L9YOfxmKW7

- Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) May 31, 2021

Let's make it simple

The variant of concern (Voc) and the variant of interest ( Voi) of Sars-Cov-2 will keep the names with which they have been registered by researchers in databases such as Gisaid, Nextstrain and Pango: scientific names such as B.1.1.7, in fact, contain important information in the technical field.

However, the WHO recognizes that this nomenclature is a bit difficult for non-experts to chew, and for this reason in generalist communication the variants of coronavirus continue to be called with the adjective of the country in which they are identified for the first time. . An incorrect way, which generates discrimination, according to the WHO.

From Alfa to Kappa

So enough with the Indian, the English, the South African or the Brazilian. Thanks to the work of the WHO expert commission, the variants can now be indicated with the letters of the Greek alphabet.

Just to mention the most popular variants, English will be Alpha, South African will be Beta, the Brazilian Gamma, while the two subtypes of the Indian variant will be Delta and Kappa.

Below are the WHO tables with other variants of Sars-Cov-2 with relative nomenclatures and information on their identification. br> (source: Oms) (source: Oms)
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Coronavirus Health Sars-Cov-2 variants globalData. fldTopic = "Coronavirus, Health, Sars-Cov-2 Variants"

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