WHO SARS-CoV-2 variant naming scheme

[IronLionZion]

https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/

Variants of Concern
A SARS-CoV-2 variant that meets the definition of a VOI (see below) and, through a comparative assessment, has been demonstrated to be associated with one or more of the following changes at a degree of global public health significance:

Increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; or
Increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; or
Decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics.

Hope these image screenshots display below. There are good tables showing the variants and names at the WHO link above.



Variants of Interest
A SARS-CoV-2 isolate is a Variant of Interest (VOI) if, compared to a reference isolate, its genome has mutations with established or suspected phenotypic implications, and either:

has been identified to cause community transmission/multiple COVID-19 cases/clusters, or has been detected in multiple countries; OR
is otherwise assessed to be a VOI by WHO in consultation with the WHO SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution Working Group.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. I thought lambda was what gave you Teh Gay. nt

[NH Ethylene]

2. Thanks for this.

I had no idea we were up to Lambda in variants of interest.

[IronLionZion]

3. There's a lot of confusion on DU

where people think something is new when it was just a renamed variant that has been around a while. The numbers are hard to remember and the country of origin leads to discrimination.

[NH Ethylene]

4. Agree. The naming switchover was done with modest fanfare.

So many people could have missed it.

It bothered me at first since the area of origin was how I was distinguishing them. But once it was done, I was fine with it.

It's ludicrous that people could be angry at Americans whose ancestry is from a country of origin. I can't even fathom the primitive thinking involved. Luckily, a simple name change is enough to fool them.