And Why COVID-19 Terminology Matters….The terminology of COVID-19 variants is not only about “name”. It is holding society together during crisis.
Highlights-
- Britain, Canada, Netherlands, Denmark and Australia register cases of Omicron variant.
- The variants named by World Health Organization after Greek letters.
- Spokesperson of WHO highlights two Greek letters omitted from terminology and why.
- Strategic importance of terminology goes much deeper than the surface.
The new Omicron variant has left the world once again fear-stricken. The mutated virus that first emerged from South Africa is now rapidly spreading across European continent and other parts of the world. U.S. and other first world countries have already imposed travel restrictions from the affected nations of South Africa.
However, one question that might have crossed the mind of many people is- where did Omicron get its name from? Or for that matter, where are all the COVID-19 variants getting their name from.
The terminology of the mutating virus is worth knowing. Here are the answers-
Where did Omicron variant get its name from?
The new COVID-19 variant that originated from South Africa has been named “Omicron” by the World Health Organization.
Earlier, the B.1.617.2 variant that emerged from India was named “Delta”. If you look at the list of all COVID-19 variants, the terminology has been derived from the Greek letters. The B.1.1.7 variant that was first detected in Nov 2020 from a sample from U.K. was named “Alpha”.
Omicron, B.1.1.529 variant that emerged from South Africa, is actuallyt the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
According to WHO, all the seven “variants of concern” or “variants of interest” have been named after Greek letters. According to the authorities of the organization, the purpose behind assigning names to these variants is to facilitate public communication around the subject.
However, not all the 15 Greek letters have made it to the terminology list of COVID-19 variants. Two letters that have been skipped from being used are “nu” and “xi”. And the reasons make a lot of sense.
Nu rhymes with “new” and can therefore, lead to misinterpretation of the term. Further, “xi” is a commonly used last name and according to Spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, while naming, WHO wants to avoid “causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.”
The consequential terminology of COVID-19 variants
Global crisis are a delicate and complicated situation to handle. A tiny irresponsibility can lead to catastrophic consequences for masses in various forms- financial, physical or social. When COVID-19 pandemic hit the world back in 2020, Former President Donald Trump chose to not only call it “Wuhan virus” but repetitively pressed on the fact that China is responsible for the outbreak.
Whether COVID-19 outbreak was really a CPC’s conspiracy or unfortunate biological event of nature is unclear, Chinese natives did bear serious consequences of act. Following Donald Trump’s hate narrative against China, U.S. witnessed drastic upsurge in hate crime and mass shooting against Southeast and East Asians.
A seemingly tiny act of irresponsible terminology by a global leader led to social unrest. Therefore, determining the name of variants become all the more essential for organizations like WHO.
According to Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at University of Saskatchewan:
It makes it really cumbersome to talk about when you’re constantly using an alphabet soup of variant designations. Ultimately people end up calling it the U.K. variant or the South African variant.
Associating a specific region or country can, within no time, perpetuate unconscious prejudice among masses, developing a social issue- the last thing that world leaders want to deal with during a global pandemic.
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