The World Health Organization (WHO) is the organization that is in charge of naming variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. They originally named these variants with long, hard-to-say, alphanumeric names. As a result, the public began referring to these variants by the names of the places where they originated, calling them “U.K.,” “South Africa,” “Brazil,” and “India” variants.
The WHO, however, was concerned that this naming practice could lead to stigmatization of people from the countries the variants were being named after, so, in May 2021, they began naming variants of concern or interest after Greek letters in order to make it easier to refer to them while avoiding names that might stigmatize specific groups of people. Thus, they named the variants I just listed the “alpha,” “beta,” “gamma,” and “delta” variants respectively.
The WHO has continued this practice of naming variants after Greek letters, but, when they named the most recent “variant of concern” the “omicron variant,” after omicron (o), the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, they deliberately skipped the two Greek letters before it: nu (ν) and xi (ξ).
The WHO clarified this decision in a statement to Reuters on 27 November 2021, saying: “‘Nu’ is too easily confounded with ‘new,’ and ‘Xi’ was not used because it is a common last name.” More specifically, the Greek letter xi’s most common Latin transliteration has the same spelling as the standard Hanyu Pinyin transliteration of 习 (Xí), the surname of Xi Jinping, the current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, chairman of the Central Military Commission of China, and state president of the People’s Republic of China.
Although spelled the same, the two words are pronounced very differently. The Greek pronunciation of the name ξι is /ksi/ and the English pronunciation is usually either /zaɪ/ or /ksaɪ/. Meanwhile, the Chinese pronunciation of 习 is /ɕǐ/ and the most common English pronunciation is /ˈʃi/ (SHEE). Nonetheless, the fact that they are spelled the same in English seems to have led the WHO to avoid using the name “xi variant.”
This was probably a wise decision. Giving a COVID variant a name that is spelled exactly the same as the surname of the sitting president of China would probably just give fuel to conspiracy theorists, who have already been claiming for over a year either that COVID was secretly created by the Chinese government as some kind of biological superweapon or that it is somehow a massive hoax that the Chinese government has orchestrated.
Naming the variant “xi” could also potentially create a diplomatic rift between the WHO and the government of the People’s Republic of China, which the WHO cannot afford. The WHO is supposed to direct and coordinate health work in all countries all over the world. China is the world’s most populous country and is home to nearly one fifth of all people on the planet, so it makes sense that the WHO would be careful to avoid names for diseases that might displease the Chinese president.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of Xi Jinping, the current president of the People’s Republic of China, whose surname is spelled the same in Latin transliteration as the name of the Greek letter xi
I probably shouldn’t have written this article, since I should be working on my final papers for my classes and graduate school applications, but I went ahead and wrote it because I knew it wouldn’t take me very long to write and I figured that a lot of people might be wondering why the WHO skipped the letters nu and xi, so the article would probably get lots of traffic, especially since it’s so short and my shorter articles tend to get the most traffic in general.
Thank you so much for your shared views, Spencer McDaniel.
I wish you much success with promoting your brilliant thoughts to others,
for a long time to come-
or-
until when you feel it’s done!
I started my University education in 1969, graduated,
raised family, etc.,
and still keep on learning every day.
You are a joy to read and then think about the nuggets of information you shared.
You are the future of inspired and intellectual thinking.
Be well,
and I wish you well in your studies.
Maya Toman
Toronto, Canada
Thank you so much! It is always nice to receive positive feedback from my readers. It always puts a little spark of joy into my day.
Thank you for this! I would have wondered about that eventually.
Good luck with finals. Stay healthy.
Thank you so much for the well wishes! I am certainly trying to stay healthy. I just took my only final exam today. Unfortunately, I have four final research papers due in the next two weeks and graduate school applications due December 15th and I’m really worried about getting everything done. I suppose the big thing is to just do the work and not let myself get distracted.
Ah, “all ya gotta do is just.” You Got this! … there’s a silly video …. I hope it doesn’t have some vulgar subtext but I think it’s funny… https://youtu.be/PuFrndeuzj0 It’s also the time of year for the Spotify Wrapped. Wait, did I just offer two more distractions? Remember to get fresh air, sunshine, hydration, and sleep. Let us know your paper titles after it’s all said & done (no jinxing). oxo
But how do you pronounce omicron? When I learnt Greek I was told it was oh-my-cron (as opposed to oh-mega), but now everyone is saying om-ee-cron.
When I rushed a sorority in the 80s I learned the Greek alphabet (forwards and backwards) from a couple of Cypriots in my dorm…. anyway I remember it as “OHM-i-cron” but I don’t know that it matters… unless the person correcting you is a native Greek speaker they ain’t got nothin’ …. jmo
Thanks for your paper. It’s a bright gap among lots of dark clouds.
Thank you so much! I’m glad I was able shine a little light into your world.
So in order to prevent conspiracy theories that COVID-19 was created by China, they encouraged conspiracy theories that the WHO is completely under China’s thumb.
I guess this is one of those damned-if-you-do moments.
Conspiracy theorists will use anything. Somehow, if there was a Greek letter pronounced “trump”. I suspect WHO would have avoided it too.
I was just commenting yesterday on this! I thought that perhaps “Delta” was used for a mutation because delta is the mathematical symbol for change, and wondered where “Omicron” came from. So now I know. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you found my article helpful.