Naming the variants

nanna8

We’ve had the Wuhan virus, the Indian virus, the UK virus and the Brazilian virus. Probably easier to remember than alpha,beta ,gamma, delta and at least it tells you not to travel to those places if nothing else. Not that we are allowed to,anyway.

Bluesky, friends in France said they would rather we didn’t visit till the English variant was under control. Perhaps that’s why it was changed to the Kent variant. Not all Europeans know where Kent is.
That’s true nanna8, so why the sudden uproar about naming a variant which was first identified in India, as the Indian variant?

We’ve had the Wuhan virus, the Indian virus, the UK virus and the Brazilian virus. Probably easier to remember than alpha,beta ,gamma, delta and at least it tells you not to travel to those places if nothing else. Not that we are allowed to,anyway.

Here you go Parsley3:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/31/frances-travel-ban-really-just-spiteful-macrons-latest-brexit/

www.express.co.uk/news/world/1417567/Emmanuel-Macron-France-lockdown-announcement-latest-British-Covid-variant-UK-vaccine-VN

Goggle it. There are about 30 articles from a variety of newspapers over the last few months!

What's that got to do with the Delta variant, which didn't exist at the beginning of 2020?

Well I'm not going to wrap anything up here but when I was so very ill after Christmas of 2019 and into 2020----until June !! I'd unfortunately caught the bug in hospital where I was in a resus bay opposite two ladies who'd just arrived from India to visit family for Christmas.

Both were choking their heads off and couldn't speak because they couldn't breathe properly. Their English was sketchy with one not understanding at all because she hadn't booked in so staff were finding it difficult to be understood.

Panic set in as staff donned aprons, masks and gloves while I was quickly shunted down the other side of the ward ----where someone else was coughing badly and throwing up.

A night I won't forget as well as the following 6 months it took to get better.

How many people would have been infected on that flight from India in December 2019 ? Calling it the Indian variant I can well understand. What's racist about that ? ( rolls eyes )
Gets on my wick !

What did Macron say about us?

BlueBelle

Blimey what a storm in a blooming teacup
ABC or 123 would be fine and not offend anyone except the alphabet fairy

Exactly BlueBell.
And we were vilified - by Macron. Anyone would think the Kent variant originated in Kent. Many places already had it just that our wonderful scientists identified it!

It is good to give names and know where a variant is coming from. Just a shame our government does not act on it.

The Kent variant is known abroad as the ‘English variant’ so we are welcome as the proverbial!

Sparklefizz you might just as well do as you say. My DH has just pointed out that knowing it was first identified in India and is causing huge problems there, won’t stop certain people trying to go there if they want to, so why not call it Delta.

Blimey what a storm in a blooming teacup
ABC or 123 would be fine and not offend anyone except the alphabet fairy

It amuses me, though, because now the latest variant is called "the Delta Variant which originated in India" - might as well call it the Indian variant.

Urmstongran

Bit like we now name our storms! I didn’t realise we had so many till they all got a name in turn from the alphabet. I think the UK got vilified for the ‘Kent’ variant. I think giving each newly identified variant an easily recognisable number would be a better idea. Will it happen though or is it all talk?

The UK was not "vilified". How ridiculous. Neither was India but it is misleading as these are the countries where they were first discovered, not necessarily where they started.

We do so much of the sequencing (our great scientists once again) so we are likely to find them first and they can't all be the UK variant so we need another system. Greek letters have often been used.

This virus is going to be constantly mutating for many years as does the flu virus, we have to learn to live with it. It makes no difference to me what it is called or where it has come from as long as we are able to manage it safely, whatever the restrictions are.

Last Monday, I started a thread which didn't gain much traction:

www.gransnet.com/forums/coronavirus/1296535-Naming-coronavirus-variants

Last time I checked for information, the "Kent" variant had been found in 50 countries.

I do have an issue with the choice of the Greek alphabet for, say, newsreading as many letters sound so similar, for example: mu and nu.

After delta, there's episilon then zeta, eta and theta.

Theta is the Greek symbol for death which is unfortunate.

I don’t think the U.K. was vilified??

It might have been by a certain type, but honestly most people with a brain understand that viruses mutate and are nation blind??

Bit like we now name our storms! I didn’t realise we had so many till they all got a name in turn from the alphabet. I think the UK got vilified for the ‘Kent’ variant. I think giving each newly identified variant an easily recognisable number would be a better idea. Will it happen though or is it all talk?

No because mutations are happening everywhere, and you should adjust your behaviour with this knowledge.

The only information that is needed is the R rate. The higher the R the more likely there will be mutations.