COVID-19 has been a lesson in Greek letters, one variant at a time
Global News
The Greek alphabet arrived on the world stage and into everyday lexicon riding on waves of the novel coronavirus as the World Health Organization began naming variants in Greek.
The Greek alphabet arrived on the world stage and into everyday lexicon riding on waves of the novel coronavirus as the World Health Organization began naming variants in the Glagolitic script.
As the variants mutated, from Alpha to Delta and then Omicron, people began taking note of the 24 Greek letters. Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last.
In June, an expert committee led by a working group of the World Health Organization announced they would be using the Greek alphabet to name the variants.
“These will be easier to remember and more practical to use than alphanumerical designations,” said the paper.
“The Greek alphabet is well established as being generic, as the names of its individual letters have already been used for a multitude of purposes.”
Mark Pallen, one of the authors of the paper, said the scientific method of using letters and numbers was cumbersome and confusing. Most people resorted to using the name of the place where the variant was first discovered, creating a stigma for that country, he noted.
“And so, there was a recognition that something easier and snappy was needed.”
Soon after, the World Health Organization decided to use Greek letters.
