Omicron, first found in South Africa, has been identified in at least a dozen other countries.
New Delhi:
“Omicron”, the new Covid variant that put the whole world on alert, is named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. The first 12 were used to name other strains.
Why are letters 13 and 14 – Nu and Xi – ignored by the World Health Organization?
The internet is full of theory.
Many say the letters were dodged for a reason.
The word “Nu” can be confused with “new” and “Xi” is part of the name of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Journalist Paul Nuki, a senior editor for the Telegraph, quoted a source as revealing that this is indeed the case.
“A WHO source confirmed the letters Nu and Xi in the Greek alphabet were intentionally avoided. They said that Nu was omitted to avoid confusion with the word “new” and Xi was omitted to “avoid regional discrimination”. All pandemics are political! ”
A WHO source confirmed the letters Nu and Xi in the Greek alphabet were intentionally avoided. They said that Nu was omitted to avoid confusion with the word “new” and Xi was omitted to “avoid regional discrimination”.
All political capital pandemic!
– Paul Nuki (@PaulNuki) November 26, 2021
Person not named. It seems that WHO omitted the next Greek letter after Nu to name the new variant. The next letter is Xi. The concern is that the WHO is avoiding any discomfort with the Chinese government. So they named it Omicron…
– Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 26, 2021
Many people tweeted about these reports. Some even called this variant “Nu” but later corrected themselves, noting that WHO jumped two alphabets.
“News about Nu variant is new, but WHO is jumping the alphabet to call it Omicron, so they can avoid Xi,” posted Martin Kulldorff, whose Twitter biography describes him as an epidemiologist. learn.
New Nu variant news, but WHO is jumping the alphabet to call it Omicron, so they can avoid Xi. pic.twitter.com/UJ4xMwg52i
– Martin Kulldorff (@MartinKulldorff) November 26, 2021
One user responded: “No, quite the opposite. They are trying to avoid any connection with politics. They started using these names to not stigmatize the places they found them and they wanted to avoid confusion or the name was a bigger story than deadly variations so they also omitted names like Nu. “
Omicron, first found in South Africa, has been identified in at least a dozen other countries.
The WHO today warned that Omicron poses a ‘very high’ global risk and that an increase in infections could have “serious consequences” in some areas.
