WHO Uses Greek Letters for Naming COVID Variants
2021-06-04
LRC
TXT
大字
小字
滚动
全页
1Goodbye B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1.
2Hello Alpha, Beta and Gamma.
3The World Health Organization (WHO) announced May 31 that it has given new names to the several versions, or variants, of new coronavirus spreading around the world.
4Based on Greek letters, the names are simple and easy to remember.
5The international health agency recognized that the scientific names can be difficult to say.
6It said, "As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory."
7As early as 2015, the WHO had advised scientists, officials and the media to avoid naming new infectious diseases after people, animals and places.
8It said to avoid names like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, or Legionnaires Disease, which have since become part of medical history.
9Instead, the WHO said, names should be descriptive terms based on general symptoms, or signs of sickness, caused by the disease.
10Dr. Keiji Fukuda was WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Security at the time.
11He said, "This may seem like a trivial issue to some, but disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected."
12He noted that disease names of the past have caused damage to economies, trade, and members of religious or ethnic communities.
13In the United States, there has been a large increase of incidents against Asian-Americans since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
14Some people blamed ethnic Asians for the spread of the coronavirus.
15The first cases of the disease were reported in Wuhan, China.
16A group of Los Angeles, California-based organizations released a report called Stop AAPI Hate.
17It found that reports of anti-Asian discrimination increased after then-President Donald Trump repeatedly used the term "Chinese virus" last year to describe the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
18Last month, Agence-France Presse reported that the Indian government ordered the country's social media to remove all writings that referred to the "Indian variant."
19The government said the term could suggest India was to blame for the disease.
20The WHO says it will continue to use the scientific name SARS-CoV-2 to describe the coronavirus that was first identified in Wuhan.
21The disease it causes is still called coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.
22And scientists will continue to use the difficult-to-remember names of the variants in their research.
23For the public, the variant first identified in Britain will now be called Alpha.
24The one first identified in South Africa will be known as Beta; the one in Brazil as Gamma; and the one in India as Delta.
25As new variants of concern and of interest are identified, the WHO said it will work with experts to name them after Greek letters.
26I'm Caty Weaver.
1Goodbye B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1. 2Hello Alpha, Beta and Gamma. 3The World Health Organization (WHO) announced May 31 that it has given new names to the several versions, or variants, of new coronavirus spreading around the world. Based on Greek letters, the names are simple and easy to remember. 4The international health agency recognized that the scientific names can be difficult to say. It said, "As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory." 5As early as 2015, the WHO had advised scientists, officials and the media to avoid naming new infectious diseases after people, animals and places. It said to avoid names like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, or Legionnaires Disease, which have since become part of medical history. Instead, the WHO said, names should be descriptive terms based on general symptoms, or signs of sickness, caused by the disease. 6Dr. Keiji Fukuda was WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Security at the time. He said, "This may seem like a trivial issue to some, but disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected." He noted that disease names of the past have caused damage to economies, trade, and members of religious or ethnic communities. 7In the United States, there has been a large increase of incidents against Asian-Americans since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Some people blamed ethnic Asians for the spread of the coronavirus. The first cases of the disease were reported in Wuhan, China. 8A group of Los Angeles, California-based organizations released a report called Stop AAPI Hate. It found that reports of anti-Asian discrimination increased after then-President Donald Trump repeatedly used the term "Chinese virus" last year to describe the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. 9Last month, Agence-France Presse reported that the Indian government ordered the country's social media to remove all writings that referred to the "Indian variant." The government said the term could suggest India was to blame for the disease. 10The WHO says it will continue to use the scientific name SARS-CoV-2 to describe the coronavirus that was first identified in Wuhan. The disease it causes is still called coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. And scientists will continue to use the difficult-to-remember names of the variants in their research. 11For the public, the variant first identified in Britain will now be called Alpha. The one first identified in South Africa will be known as Beta; the one in Brazil as Gamma; and the one in India as Delta. 12As new variants of concern and of interest are identified, the WHO said it will work with experts to name them after Greek letters. 13I'm Caty Weaver. 14Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. 15_____________________________________________________________ 16Words in This Story 17stigmatize - v. to describe or regard in a way that shows strong disapproval 18trivial - adj. not important