Covid variant: What is the meaning of OMICRON and why two letters of the Greek alphabet have been skipped

The Covid variant: what is the meaning of omicron and why two letters of the Greek alphabet have been skipped.

To rename variants of Covid-19 and avoid stigmatizing countries in which it was first discovered, Last May, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to use the letters of the Greek alphabet.

The choice is about Variables of greatest interest and variables of the second level of interest. The British B.1.1.7 mutation previously defined became alpha; B.1.351 was first discovered in South Africa and became beta, and the Brazilian P.1 was renamed Gamma. The so-called Indian variant B.1.617 is divided into subspecies, of which the variant of interest B.1.617.2 is named Delta. and so on and so on. “It will not replace existing scientific names, but is intended to assist in the public discussion,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for Covid-19.

The new alternative identified in recent days in South Africa, Being The thirteenth to which a letter of the Greek alphabet must be assignedHe should have been called “No”. But, according to Telegraph journalist Paul Nuki, who cites anonymous WHO sources, the UN decided to skip this message because in the Greek pronunciation (Ne) It can be confused with the English word “new”. In the end, however, the strain was identified with the initials SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 Instead, the fifteenth letter of the alphabet, “Omicron”, was designated, skipping two of them: “Nu” and “Xi”. the reasons? They did not want to be confused, but above all, they did not want to offend anyone.

According to international media, in fact, the World Health Organization decided to jump The character of the Greek alphabet Xi, corresponding to the nickname translated from Chinese President Xi Jinping, to go to the next stage, Omicron accurately. Officially, in fact, the Xi was skipped “to avoid stigmatizing an area,” says Noki. The region in question is not mentioned, but it is easy to identify it with China, since the letter exactly matches the surname of its chief.
The first controversial reaction to this decision was US Republican Senator Ted Cruz: “If the World Health Organization is so afraid of the Chinese Communist Party – he tweeted – how can we think they will condemn (the Chinese) the next time they try to cover up a pandemic? catastrophic world?