Why did the WHO ‘omit’ two letters of the Greek alphabet to name the ‘micron’ variant?

To avoid prejudice and stigma, World Health Organization (WHO) No longer named Variations From Kovit-19 they began to use the letters of the Greek alphabet, with the name of the country from which they arose. However, when naming the new concern variant, Ômicron, in theory, should be called “Nu”.

Nu is the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet, Xi is the 14th letter and Ômicron is the 15th letter. The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, from alpha to omega. But why did the World Health Organization exclude two characters within the criteria they chose to name the variants?

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There is no risk of confusion

The reason is that the element made the Greek characters accept: stigma, confusion and Prejudices. The 13th letter, nu, its pronunciation is easily confused with the word “new” which means “new” in English. In other words, the name is easily confused with the “new variant” in English.

Xi, on the other hand, is the most common surname in some countries, such as China, and is also the surname of the Asian president. Xi Jinping. “The WHO’s best practices for naming new diseases are recommended to avoid hurting any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic group,” the WHO said.

WHO wants to avoid stigma

China has also been hit hard by speculation about the origin of the Kovit-19 virus. The most widely accepted version is that the virus jumped from animals to humans in a wild animal market City of Wuhan, China.

However, conspiracy theories indicate SARS – Cove-2 It will be developed in a laboratory and will be a kind of “biological weapon” developed by the Chinese government. It is understandable, therefore, that the WHO wants to avoid a controversy over a variant with a name similar to that of the President of China.

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If new variants appear, the WHO has nine more options for naming them: pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, khi, psi and omega. But fans say there is no need to use Greek characters or any other criteria to name the new variants of the Kovit-19 virus.

Via: CNN Brazil

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