The World Health Organization (WHO) is changing the name of various virus variants. Now it will no longer be called the Indian, Brazilian or English variant.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hope the new system for naming virus variants will be easy to remember and not stigmatize countries. Foto: Laurent Gillieron / Keystone via AP / NTB
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1. june 2021 06:27
Last updated just now
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Until now, the virus variants have either been mentioned by their technical number code or by where the variants were first discovered.
In the hope of creating a fairer and more comprehensible system, the WHO will refer to the most feared and contagious variants with letters from the Greek alphabet. They urge national authorities media and others to do the same: Alpha, beta, gamma and delta.
Future variants that are considered more contagious and give cause for concern will be referred to in the following letters of the Greek alphabet.
WHO says a group of experts have developed the new system and that it will not replace the scientific terminologies, but the organization hopes that the change in naming will make it easier to say and remember the different variants.
The WHO also justifies it by saying that it is stigmatizing and discriminatory to name the variants after the countries where they originated.
- The “alpha variant” is to replace what is often called the British variant. It was the first of the virus variants and was discovered in England. It is known as B.1.1.7.
- The other, which originated in South Africa and has the code B. 1.351, is thus referred to as the «beta variant».
- The virus variant that was discovered in Brazil is called “gamma”.
- The fourth variant from India is to be referred to as «delta». Future variants that are considered more contagious and give cause for concern will be referred to in the following letters of the Greek alphabet.
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