WHO Begins Naming Covid Variants With Greek Alphabet Letters

The World Health Organization announced a new naming scheme for coronavirus variants using the Greek alphabet.

The scientific names used to date “can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting,” the organization said in a statement. “As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory.”

The B.1.1.7 variant, the variant that emerged from the U.K., will be called Alpha, whereas the B.1.617 first detected in India will be referred to as Delta. The existing names will remain in use by scientists and in research, the WHO said.

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