Markets plummeted on Friday, hope of controlling the coronaviruses waned, and a new term entered the pandemic lexicon: Omicron.
The Covid-19 variant was named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
The naming system announced by the World Health Organization makes public communication about variant easier and less confusing.
The variant that emerged in India is not commonly known as B.1.617.2. Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet.
There are now seven different types of interest and each has a Greek letter, according to the W.H.O. tracking page.
The W.H.O. skipped two letters just before Omicron, leading to speculation about whether the Chinese president was avoided in order to appease him.
The W.H.O. spokesman said on Saturday that "Nu is too easily confused with new." It is a common last name, so it was not used.
He said that the best practices for naming diseases suggest avoiding offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.
Delta rose to a variant of concern. Alpha,Beta and Gamma were 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 The others that emerged were named Mu and Lambda. Nu and Xi were the only Greek letters that were not used.
The W.H.O. has promoted the naming system as easy to remember and understand, unlike the scientific names, which can be difficult to say and recall.
Some people agree.
The Greek naming system was announced this year, and Dr. Rasmussen stumbled through confusing explanations about the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variant. They emerged in the United Kingdom and in South Africa.
She said that it makes it hard to talk about it when people call it the U.K. variant or the South African variant.
The W.H.O. moved to the Greek naming system because it was unfair to the people where the virus emerged. The agency said that the practice of describing variant by the places they were detected was stigmatizing.
The practice of naming viruses for regions has historically been misleading. The river is far away from where the virus emerged.
People used to call it the Spanish flu when it first started. Why don't we call it the Wuhan coronaviruses? Dr. Rasmussen said so. The Spanish flu did not come from there. We don't know where it came from, but there's a good chance it came from the U.S.
The W.H.O. encouraged the media to use the new labels. They do not replace the technical names that convey important information to scientists.
