Two letters of the Greek alphabet, ‘nu’ and ‘xi’, were skipped in naming the new COVID-19 variant omicron to “avoid offence” said the World Health Organization (WHO)..In a statement provided to the American Press, the WHO gave its public reasons as to why it avoided both letters..“‘Nu’ is too easily confounded with ‘new,’ and ‘Xi’ was not used because it is a common last name” the WHO said..On Friday, the WHO deemed the new COVID-19 virus a variant of concern (VOC) and labelled it ‘Omicron.’.The new variant was first reported to WHO by South African scientists, but has been identified in other countries as well..Although the WHO had been following the Greek alphabet when naming newly discovered variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the choice to use the name “Omicron” by WHO sparked debate on social media as to whether Xi was skipped to avoid offending Xi Jinping, China’s communist strongman since 2012..Throughout the pandemic, the WHO has been sharply criticized for its deference to the Chinese Communist Party, advocating against limiting travel with China early on in the pandemic and praising China for its handling of the crisis, despite mounting evidence that China was involved in the outbreak of the virus and in covering up its early spread..According to WHO pledge data, China’s financial contributions to the agency have increased in recent years by 52% from 2014 to 2019 to approximately $86 million..Although the WHO did not confirm they were avoiding a slight towards the Chinese leader, they did say they were looking to “avoid causing offence, generally.”.The WHO highlighted a document released in 2015 stating the agency’s “best practices for naming disease suggest avoiding ‘causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.’”.This marks the first time the agency has skipped over Greek letters in its naming process for COVID variants. Alpha, beta, gamma and delta have all been used thus far to indicate current VOCs with omicron being the next in line. Lambda, kappa and mu have been used to indicate a “variant of interest” (VOI) which are considered less serious..The newly discovered variant has now been identified in a number of countries, including Canada..Early research shows Omicron has a high number of mutations in the COVID-19 spike protein and preliminary evidence suggests there is a possible “increased risk of reinfection” compared to other VOCs..While it’s too early to say whether the new variant will be more severe than of VOCs, the WHO confirmed Monday scientists around the world are working to determine whether the variant is more transmissible or dangerous..In a statement on the WHO website, the agency said the Greek alphabet system for naming variants was chosen “after wide consultation and a review of many potential naming systems.”.The WHO said the labels are not meant to replace existing scientific names but these names “can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting.”.“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.”.Labels for VOIs and VOCs can be found on the WHO website..Melanie Risdon is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.mrisdon@westernstandardonline.com
