The corona mutations are playing an increasingly important role. Now they are getting new names from the World Health Organization (WHO). And there is a good reason for that …
Corona mutations are on the rise all over the world. Whether it’s the British, South African or Brazilian variant – they have all made it to Germany by now – and are making headlines because scientists keep asking themselves whether our vaccinations also help against the variants. The virus mutant, previously known as the “British variant” or B.1.1.7, currently accounts for 90 percent of the samples examined in this country. In future, the mutation will be called “Alpha” – echo24.de * explains why.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has now decided to name the mutations according to Greek letters. The WHO announced on Monday in Geneva. Accordingly, the new rule applies to all variants that have been classified as “worrying” or “of interest” and should “help in the public discussion,” said Maria Van Kerkhove from the WHO.
Corona mutations with new names: WHO uses Greek letters – why?
This new system of Greek letters now names the Corona mutations from South Africa, Brazil, India and Great Britain for the time being. It is not intended to replace the scientific names, but to complement them. Only the country names should be omitted in the future. Because they actually only show where the virus variant was detected for the first time – but in the past have resulted in stigmatizing and discriminating against the affected countries.
The renaming of the Corona variants was initialized primarily because there had been repeated hate, discrimination and attacks on citizens of Asian origin in the USA. According to activists, the former US President Donald Trump is to blame for this, because he repeatedly referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus” because Corona was first detected there.
Corona mutations with new names: That’s why alpha, beta, etc. should prevail
If the WHO has its way, such verbal attacks should now finally stop. “No country should be stigmatized for discovering and reporting variants,” said Van Kerkhove. In order to prevent future discrimination and to facilitate public communication, the WHO wants to encourage the national authorities and the media to adopt the new names.
- Mutation Alpha: It was first discovered in the UK and is believed to be easier to transmit. Its scientific name is B.1.1.7
- Mutation beta: This corona variant was first detected in South Africa. Their presumed properties include a “reduced effectiveness of the immune response”. It is scientifically known as mutation B.1.351.
- Mutation Gamma: This Covid-19 mutation was previously known as the “Brazilian variant” because it was discovered in Brazil. It is similar to the mutant “Alpha” and its scientific name is P.1.
- Mutation Delta: This variant is particularly widespread in India and was also detected there for the first time. It is also referred to in common parlance as ” double mutation”. Scientists call this corona variant B.1.617.2.
The previous scientific terms also have their advantages, but they are difficult to pronounce – and also to remember. Therefore, they would often be confused. So that this does not lead to the wrong variant being accidentally mentioned in the news, for example, and thus incorrect information about the individual corona mutations being circulated, the simpler system of Greek letters is now to be established.
Corona mutations with new names: Other names were also being considered
But the WHO did not make the decision to use Greek letters easy for itself. For months, a committee discussed what the virus variants should be called in the future. Initially, Greek gods or pseudo-classical word creations were also discussed. According to the bacteriologist Mark Pallen, however, all these ideas were rejected again.
The panel member said many of the names are already in use – for brands, companies, or aliens. According to Pallen himself, he himself stopped the suggestion to designate the variants as VOC1, VOC2, VOC3 etc., because they looked too much like an English swear word when they were pronounced out loud. So the WHO ultimately went the way of naming the corona mutations according to Greek letters. * echo24.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
List of rubric lists: © Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
