To prevent the stigma of communities in which new COVID 19 variants have been identified, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed an alternative classification of COVID-19 variants based  on the Greek alphabet

“There’s (sic) definitely issues with stigmatization where the variants are being described and then labelling them based on that country. We know that there’s already backlash in India, regarding the Indian variant and people mentioning it that way,” said Dr Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security. “So, I understand why it’s happening. I think it’s just a lot for people to think about this far down the line.” 

The WHO states it will be easier for non-scientific people to use the Greek alphabet version.  However, there are concerns that the implementation may be too late due to a further confusion between the current scientific classification and the Greek alphabetic version (see the Table below).

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

VARIANTS OF INTEREST

Sources:

Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction, Dr Sanjay Gupta

Johns Hopkins University

World Health Organisation (WHO)

Copyright © 2021 medworx, All rights reserved