Coronavirus variants with clunky, alphanumeric names have now been assigned the letters of the Greek Alphabet in a bid to simplify discussion and pronunciation while avoiding stigma. The World Health Organization revealed the new names on Monday amid criticism that those given by scientists such as the so-called South African variant which goes by multiple names including B.1.351, 501Y.V2 and 20H/501Y.V2 were too complicated. As such, the four coronavirus variants considered of concern by the U.N. 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 according to the order of their detection.
We don’t want no Indian variant
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Last Updated: May 19, 2021, 11:09 PM IST
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Synopsis
No country carries out genetic profiling of as many samples of the virus as it can lay its hand on as Britain does. So, it is not impossible that a variant that originated in geography X was detected first in geography Y. In any case, no country bears responsibility for any variant.
Agencies
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It is all very well for star-struck lovers to ask, what’s in a name? Nomenclature matters. Donald Trump knew very well why he should call Sars-Cov-2 the Chinese virus. It helped deflect blame, from his administration’s callous indifference to the pandemic to an alien, putatively hostile power. Asian Americans continue to bear the brunt of that bit of political irresponsibility, with many devotees of the former president sincerely believing that the pandemic is enemy action and taking it out on Chinese-looking individuals. It is vital, therefore, that the name Indian