WHO proposes using Greek Alphabet to label Covid-19 strains to avoid ‘stigmatizing’ countries with namesake variants

The World Health Organization (WHO) has unveiled what it called “easy-to-say” Greek labels for coronavirus variants, set to replace designations based on the country of origin that are commonly used in the media.The new labels would not substitute “scientific names” of the variants – typically an intricate succession of characters and numbers – but rather “help in public discussion” of the new Covid-19 strains, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, announced on Monday.
Per WHO’s proposal, the Covid-19 mutation known as “the UK variant” or B.1.1.7 should be referred to as “Alpha”, while the strain widespread in South Africa is rebranded as “Beta.” Two Brazilian variants, known as P.1 and P.2, became Gamma and Zeta, respectively, while two subliniages of the so-called “Indian variant”, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2, are listed as “Kappa” and “Delta.”
Two further coronavirus variants, first reported by the US in March this year, received arguably one of the least familiar sounding Greek labels, being designated “Epsilon” and “Iota” by the WHO. The rebranding is ostensibly aimed at removing a stigma from a country where a strain is believed to have originated.
“No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants,” Van Kerkhove said, noting also that the “numbering system” used by researchers, but shunned by non-scientific publications, “can be difficult to follow.”