The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that all major variants of the coronavirus disease will be formally referred to by certain letters of the Greek alphabet, instead of by their country of origin, in order to reduce “stigma,” The Guardian reports.
There are currently four variants that the WHO considers to be major concerns. These variants originated in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and India. But going forward, these variants will be known as the “Alpha,” “Beta,” “Gamma,” and “Delta” variants. Subsequent variants will continue down the rest of the Greek alphabet.
In their statement announcing the change, the WHO claimed, without evidence, that “calling variants by the places where they are detected” can lead to “stigmatizing and discriminatory” attitudes. This is despite the fact that major viruses and diseases throughout history have been given names that reflect their country of origin, including the Ebola virus (named after the Ebola River in the Congo) and the Spanish Flu.
The WHO’s new policy is the latest mainstream affirmation of the unproven conspiracy theory promoted by many on the Left, which claims that the coronavirus’s origins in China have led to a wave of anti-Asian hate crimes, even though there is no evidence to back up this assertion. Some on the Left have even directly and falsely blamed this so-called trend on President Donald Trump, who repeatedly and correctly referred to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus.”