WHO switches to Greek naming system for coronavirus variants

The World Health Organization has a new naming system for SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants of interest, based on the Greek alphabet.

Pop quiz: In which country was the B.1.617.2 coronavirus variant first detected? If the answer (India), wasn't on the tip of your tongue, the World Health Organization is here to help. On Monday, the WHO announced that it had a new naming system for SARS-CoV-2 "variants of concern" and "variants of interest," meaning versions of the virus with important mutations that are being carefully tracked by scientists. Moving forward, every virus variant will have a name based on the Greek alphabet, such as "Alpha," "Beta" or "Gamma," in an effort to help the public talk about the variants more easily without reverting to identifying them by the countries in which they were first identified. The new names don't replace the existing scientific number-and-letter combinations, which will still be used in research, but the change should make it simpler for non-scientists to talk accurately and sensitively about variants. "While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting," the WHO said in a statement Monday. "As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory. To avoid this and to simplify public communications, WHO encourages national authorities, media outlets and others to adopt these new labels."