GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it would start using Greek letters to name new variants of COVID-19 to avoid misreporting and stigmatising nations where they were first detected.
“While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting,” the WHO said, adding, “As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatising and discriminatory.”
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
The development came amid concerns raised by the Indian government that labeling variants according to where they were first detected leads to increased stigmatization.
The four coronavirus variants considered of concern by the United Nations agency and known generally by the public as the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India variants have now been given the letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta respectively according to the order of their detection.
“The labels don’t replace existing scientific names, which convey important scientific information and will continue to be used in research,” WHO’s technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove tweeted.
“These labels will help with public discussion about VOC/VOI as the numbering system can be difficult to follow,” she added. WHO further said it encouraged media outlets and national authorities to adopt the new labels.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has detected what appears to be a combination of two variants. On Saturday, the country’s health minister said it could spread quickly through the air and described it as “very dangerous”.
Before the new WHO scheme, some scientists had adopted their own simplified nomenclature for variants such as a February paper using bird names. However, it was criticised on the grounds that this could imperil birds and by the mother of a girl named Robin.
