The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it wants to change the names of the variants of Covid-19. These will be renamed according to the letters of the Greek alphabet. The reason ? Simplify their pronunciation and avoid ” stigma and discrimination »Countries where the variants first appeared.

The World Health Organization has announced that it has chosen new names to designate variants of SARS-CoV-2. Why such a change ? In a press release, the WHO explains that it wants more names ” easy to pronounce and remember “. But above all, this change must make it possible to prevent the general public and the media from using names ” stigmatizing and discriminatory »For countries where variants first appeared. For example, attacks against people of Asian origin have increased in the United States since the start of the health crisis.

The experts thus agreed to rename the variants with the names of the letters of the Greek alphabet. The B.1.1.7 variant identified for the first time in the United Kingdom thus becomes Alpha; B.1.351 that appeared in South Africa has been renamed Beta and the P.1 variant first detected in Brazil is now called Gamma. As for the Indian variant, the WHO has given two different names to the distinct sublines of the B.1.617 variant. The B.1.617.2 variant thus becomes Delta and the B.1.617.1 variant is henceforth called Kappa.

If the names of the variants are changed for the general public, the WHO still assured that the scientific names would continue to be used as it indicates on its official website: ” The nomenclature systems established to name and track SARS-CoV-2 genetic lines by GISAID, Nextstrain and Pango are currently and will continue to be used by scientists and in scientific research. “. And for good reason, they provide useful data to experts. On the other hand, WHO plans to use the new names inspired by the Greek alphabet in its daily communication and encourages national authorities and the media to do the same.