# The term "India variant" -- unobjectionable? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [May 20, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565 "2021-05-20T17:54:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/41 "2021-05-27T20:51:16Z")
We should give the variants names of polititians, so I suggest the Modi Variant, the Bolsonaro Variant, the Cruz Variant, the Johnson Variant… etc. of the Xi Virus. People would remember that and it could not be seen as racist. It would just be more personal. And it would give the polititians an incentive to do something about it. Hint: The best thing they could do would be to speed up vaccination. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/42 "2021-05-27T21:08:56Z")
Besides the fact that searching for, say, US or Russia gives a whole bunch of variants, not every variant or lineage even has a country or even region in the description field; e.g. A.23.1 is an “international lineage with a number of variants of potential biological concern”. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/43 "2021-05-27T21:13:02Z")
You could resort to the President of the UN, the WHO, the WTO or any other international organisation for that. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/44 "2021-05-27T21:30:05Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Why would you need or want to look stuff like that up? The whole point is that we (or, at least, the WHO) agree that correct terminology does not include potentially misleading “[geographical] variant”. For example, which is the California Variant? B.1.427 or B.1.429? I don’t understand if what I’m saying here is controversial, or people aren’t reading it, or if I’m just articulating poorly, or what. The problem is that if it’s helpful for regular people to be able to distinguish various characteristics of different variants, using obscure alphanumeric strings with no inherent meaning (to regular people) is difficult for people to keep things straight. Using place names is easier. Using random politician names, or hurricane-style names, or breakfast foods would also be fine, and would avoid some of the geographic-name problems. But it’s not sufficient for randos like us on a message board to suggest these ideas - the WHO or similarly authoritative body needs to actually use those names. Insisting that we can’t use the geographic but having obscure, meaningless (to non-virologists) strings of numbers and letters as the only alternative has led us to where we are: people using the geographic names. And if it’s not helpful for regular folks to distinguish the variants, then we don’t need any naming system for them at all. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/45 "2021-05-27T21:32:53Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Why would you need or want to look stuff like that up? Because those numbers are hard to remember, but the regions they were isolated in are easy to remember. Thus the details I read get associated in my mind with the name of the region. I can tell you right now that the UK variant and the India variant have some of mutations of the South Africa variant. But, if you gave me the numbers, I would have to go translate them to figure out which ones you were talking about. If we want to avoid regional naming, then we need to have other names for our human brains to latch onto, not numerical distinctions. And we need to do it quickly, as there is a lot of inertia in changing the names that we’ve picked up. It could actually be too late to try and rename the current variants of interest. As for there being multiple variants in different regions: as far as I know, there has still only been one variant (or group of variants) of interest per region for the general public. That could change, but, if new names aren’t made for them, they’ll likely just take on some other region name, maybe a more precise location. If you don’t provide names, then our brains will take them from whatever context they can. If they want to stop regional naming for variants, they need names that we can remember. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/46 "2021-05-27T21:44:16Z")
Thanks, @BigT. I think that said what I was trying to say more clearly. ---
**Author:** ![stuccosuperstar2020](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@stuccosuperstar2020](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuccosuperstar2020)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/47 "2021-05-28T06:28:57Z")
Which will take 5 minutes. Some of these variants didn’t even originate from the countries who they have claimed in nomenclature. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/48 "2021-05-28T15:41:06Z")
So what? It doesn’t matter how trivial it is to look up. Most people aren’t going to bother. Again, that’s why articles written for lay audiences uses the geographic names. Also, the fact that they might not have actually originally emerged in the named country doesn’t matter either. Why would it? ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/49 "2021-06-01T05:11:29Z")
Wanted: Woke Greek SJWs … > **[WHO renames variants of concern using Greek alphabet](https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0531/1225111-covid-who/)** > > The World Health Organization has announced a new naming system for variants of interest (VOI) and variants of concern (VOC), the forms of the Covid-19 virus with important mutations. I’m sure one or 2 might object to the hijack of their fine language. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/50 "2021-06-01T05:41:12Z")
Using Greek letters instead of Latin letters is a distinction with no difference IMO. Note that the World _Meterological_ Organization just **ended** the use of Greek letters > **[WMO Hurricane Committee retires tropical cyclone names and ends the use of...](https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/wmo-hurricane-committee-retires-tropical-cyclone-names-and-ends-use-of-greek)** > > The World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee has retired Dorian (2019) and Laura, Eta and Iota (2020) from the rotating lists of Atlantic tropical cyclone names because of the death and destruction they caused. It also decided that the... because “it creates a distraction from the communication of hazard and storm warnings and is potentially confusing.” ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/51 "2021-06-01T06:03:59Z")
Personally, I find the whole thing ridiculous, a bit like the “[Is the term ‘master bedroom’ offensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-master-bedroom-offensive/940001)” thread. IMO (I can’t stress that enough, and I’m entitled to it) - a bunch of headless chickens running around looking for something to be offended by, or trying to prove just how ‘socially aware’ they are. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/52 "2021-06-01T06:18:53Z")
I’m going to guess that you’re in absolutely no danger of being assaulted because the rabble-rousing racist ex-President and his racist cohorts insisted on using the term “China virus” and other racist epithets. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/53 "2021-06-01T07:11:29Z")
The history of this “new” WHO system seems to be: the original plan was to use 2-syllable random nonce words, as I mentioned, but too many of them were already real names of people/companies/places. Then they considered Greek gods, then numbering them “One”, “Two”, “Three”, …; and finally went with “Alpha”, “Beta”, “Gamma”, etc. Which system has recently been abandoned by the WMO for not being all it’s cracked up to be when put to real-life use. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/54 "2021-06-01T17:26:39Z")
I’m not sure why the WMO abandoned greek letters, but I assume it had at least a little to do with the ambiguity problem: which Hurricane Alpha? 2020’s, 2024’s, or 2027’s? Not sure that would apply here. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out for covid variants, but it’s a little late to be coming along. Now you’ve got the problem that terms like ‘UK Variant’ are pretty well established. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/55 "2021-06-01T17:49:21Z")
they could use klingon words. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/56 "2021-06-01T17:51:26Z")
Well, what you show is that you are not aware of how places and people can be affected by naming a disease as the place it may have originated. > **[Scientists need to rethink how human disease names chosen, WHO advises: New...](https://www.thenationshealth.org/content/45/6/1.1)** > > In 1982, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an “unexpected cluster” of previously healthy gay men who had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and a type of pneumonia that typically develops in people with weakened immune... > [@](#): > > In Old Lyme, Connecticut, John Sieviec, MSRS, chief sanitarian at the Old Lyme Health Department, has been diagnosed more than once with the tick-borne disease that was named after his community after a rash of cases were identified in the 1970s. Sieviec said there is a lingering stigma that visitors to Old Lyme will get sick with Lyme disease. But he noted it can be tricky to educate people about Lyme disease prevention without perpetuating misperceptions about his community. > > > “It’s a difficult balance,” he said. “But it’s something that’s always with us.” BTW, using woke as a slur is made precisely in an effort to use ignorance to quiet down the opposition. > **[How “Woke” Became a Slur - Colorlines](https://colorlines.com/article/how-woke-became-slur/)** > > Three scholars explain the complex history of the polarizing buzzword. ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/57 "2021-06-01T18:11:17Z")
I apologise if my opinions do not mesh exactly with yours - and as for you thinking my use of that term was a slur, well, you’re entitled to your opinion. I really have no use for this board, I’ll take some satisfaction from the fact I won’t be missed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/58 "2021-06-01T18:42:14Z")
There’s a balancing act between using names people can remember, and avoiding names that lead to stigmatization (and worse) to innocent people. Wuhan coronavirus was okay, at least outside of China. No one where i live, at least, especially thinks of classes of people as being related to Wuhan. Then the virus and the disease got official names (covid-19 and sars covid 2, ish) and those were okay names, and people and the press started referring to covid-18, covid, and 'rona, all of which are unobjectionable common names. And then certain factions worked really hard to replace those names with “China virus”. That was pretty obviously a racist attempt to stigmatise the Chinese. Which, fwiw, worked. I have a number of Chinese-looking friends who were the target of racist language recently, something that hasn’t happened to them before. We don’t really have any great names for the variants of concern. That’s unfortunate, but doesn’t retroactively make it okay to talk about the “China virus” when we do have better options. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/59 "2021-06-01T18:58:18Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > That’s unfortunate, but doesn’t retroactively make it okay to talk about the “China virus” when we do have better options. As long as “bat flu” remains okay… ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565/60 "2021-06-01T22:07:36Z")
Just saw on the TV news that the CDC is switching to Greek letters for the variants, for some of the same reasons in this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-india-variant-unobjectionable/942565.md?page=4)