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Old 30th November 2021, 10:02   #3
paulh260260
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grivas View Post
Can anyone shed any light as to why the latest Covid-19 variant has been designated using the Greek letter omicron.

I understand so far WHO has designated four variants, alpha, beta, gamma and delta, so why jump to omicron, when there are several more letters in between to choose from?.
From inews.com....

"Why is the new strain called Omicron?

Omicron is the Greek letter “O”, and is the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet.

The reason such a late letter has been used is twofold. Firstly, there are other variants that, while not classified as variants of concern, still have been named. For instance, there are Lambda and Mu variants, we just do not really hear about them, as they are barely prevalent.

Secondly, the WHO decided to skip ahead and not name any variants “Nu” or “Xi”.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said Nu is too similar to the world “new”, while Xi has not been used because it is a common last name.

He added that the WHO aims to avoid “causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups” when naming viruses."

So now we know!!
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