The WHO skips forward two Greek letters, avoiding a Xi variant

[hker]

I wish the WHO could name things more consistently.

- They did not rename the Ebola virus the same way the renamed the virus first discovered in Wuhan (as COVID 19).

- And they are happy to keep the SARS backronym in SARS-CoV-2, since SARS was first discovered in Hong Kong SAR.

- Now they skip over the Xi variant, although the Delta variant (or the name Corona itself) did cause some confusion earlier.

If they want to be classy in naming, can they be more classy to people outside of mainland China?

[hahahaha23w]

WHO said it was because Xi was a common last name. But I can confirm Xi isn’t a common Chinese last name. It ranks 332 by population, https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%A0%E5%A7%93

810k out of 1.4billion. 0.05%

[anshumankmr]

I know their explanation is a weak one but 810K is a lot of people.

[moistly]

Naming it “Nu” (pronounced “nee” but everyone will say “new”) would be confusing and stupid.

Naming it “Xi” would be as stupid as naming it “Biden” or “Putin.”

Trying to make a big deal of skipping over troublesome letters is also pretty stupid.

[NackerHughes]

Because Biden and Putin are also common last names, right?