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 The World Health Organization revealed the new names on Monday amid
criticism that those given by scientists to strains such as the
South African variant - which goes by multiple names including
B.1.351, 501Y.V2 and 20H/501Y.V2 - were too complicated.
Since the pandemic began, the names people have used to describe the
virus have provoked controversy. Former U.S. President Donald Trump
called the new coronavirus "the China virus" and other monikers,
raising concern he was using the names as a political weapon to
shift blame to a rival nation.
The WHO, which has urged people not to use language to advance
COVID-19 profiling of people or nationalities, has also said people
should avoid using country names in association with emerging
variants.
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 assigned the Greek letters
Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, respectively, according to the order
of their detection.
Other variants of interest continue down the alphabet.
"While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be
difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting," said
the WHO, explaining the decision.
The choice of the Greek alphabet came after months of deliberations
in which other possibilities such as Greek gods and invented,
pseudo-classical names were considered, according to bacteriologist
Mark Pallen, who was involved in the talks.
Many, though, were already brands, companies or alien names.
Another idea, to refer to variants of concern as VOC1, VOC2 and so
on, was scrapped after Pallen pointed out pronunciation of the
acronym could sound like an English swear word.
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 Lost religions and the names of
plants and fruits were also considered, the WHO
said. Historically, viruses have
often been associated with the locations from which they are thought
to have emerged, such as the Ebola virus, which is named after a
Congolese river.
But this can be damaging and inaccurate such as with the "Spanish
flu" pandemic of 1918 whose origins are unknown, although the
earliest cases are now believed to have emerged in the U.S. state of
Kansas. "No country should be stigmatized for
detecting and reporting variants," said WHO epidemiologist Maria Van
Kerkhove.
In the United States, Asians have been harassed and attacked during
the pandemic, with activists and police saying anti-Asian sentiment
was fuelled by Trump's comments blaming the pandemic on China.
President Joe Biden this month signed a law against COVID-19 hate
crimes.
Before the new WHO scheme, some scientists had adopted their own
simplified nomenclature for variants such as in a February paper
using bird names. However, this was criticised on the grounds that
this could imperil birds and by the mother of a girl named Robin.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Michael Shields
and John Miller; Editing by Giles Elgood and Tom Hogue)
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