Exciting news today on the coronavirus naming front! After months of deliberation following my clarion call to simplify things for us lay folks, we finally have new common names for the known COVID variants:
- Alpha (UK, 9/20)
- Beta (South Africa, 5/20)
- Gamma (Brazil, 11/20)
- Delta (India, 10/20)
- Epsilon (California, 3/20)
- Zeta (Brazil, 4/20)
- Eta (Multiple countries, 10/20)
- Theta (Philippines, 1/21)
- Iota (New York, 11/20)
- Kappa (India, 10/20)
The first four variants in bold are "variants of concern," those with high transmissibility and virulence compared to the original strain. The others are "variants of interest," worth keeping an eye on but not thought to be especially dangerous. There are, thankfully, currently no "variants of high consequence," a category that I assume needs no explanation.
So there you have it. There are still 14 letters remaining in the Greek alphabet, and when we use them all up we will keep going with a "similar series," according to the WHO. Please leave your suggestions in comments.
POSTSCRIPT: The technical names (B.1.1.7 etc.) are still around and will continue to be used in the scientific community.
Very disappointing. Saw the headline...thought Kevin was announcing a naming contest. Turns out "WHO" wasn't a question, though, just an acronym for a bunch of foreigners usurping our opportunity to go creative.
So, is the entire B.1.617 lineage called Delta; what about sub-variants? Is B.1.617.3 to be called Delta Delta Delta, and do we humorously now associate Tri Deltas with a highly infectious strain of ignorance?
Delta Force?
After the Greek alphabet should come Trump appointees from shortest to longest tenure. That should cover us for years of variants.
The Greek Alphabet is available now that they are not used for hurricanes.
Tooting one's own horn notwithstanding, I rather suspect it was the various countries' desire to not be associated with the variants first discovered within their borders...
Silly - nothing wrong with geographic names.
They should name them after the first person found to have the variant, e.g. Janet's disease.
E. Henry Thripshaw's disease.
Can I suggest the Henry Draper catalog of stars? It has 359,083 entries.
Wait a minute... I thought this was the Chinese Virus. Now you're telling me its a Greek Virus?!
Pretty silly, but I guess President Xi and his enablers in America have put the kibosh on geographic names. Too bad, since I was planning on beating up some Brits; I don't know how to spot alphas and punish them.