How did the Omicron virus get its name?

The new coronavirus variant, Omicron, has all of us scared once again. We don’t even know whether the current vaccines work against it, given that the symptoms are quite different, and not much is known about this attack yet. But the name Omicron, has got more people discussing it than previous names like alpha, gamma or delta.  

What is different about the name Omicron?  
So far, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been using the Greek alphabet to name versions of corona. So, it has been a, b, c, d etc. in Greek. With Omicron, WHO skipped two letters of the alphabet. 12 variants were named after 12 alphabets. But 13 and 14 were skipped, because Omicron is alphabet number 15. That is very strange. It should actually have been called Nu. The next letter Xi, was also skipped.  

Why did the WHO avoid using Nu and Xi?  
Talking to Paul Nuki, senior journalist of The Telegraph, USA, WHO officials pointed out that they were avoiding Nu because of its similarity with the word ‘new’. A lot of people would pronounce ‘nu’ and ‘new’ same. Once the next variant comes, would that make it the ‘old new strain’? To avoid confusions, they were just avoiding the letter. As for Xi, WHO has said they were avoiding it because they did not want to ‘stigmatise’ a particular ‘region’. The Chinese President is called Xi Jinping. He may not have found it funny if a virus was named after him.  

How is social media reacting to Omicron?  
A virus is no laughing matter, but predictably, WHO’s naming convention has drawn a lot of tweets, comments, posts and even memes. The journalist Paul Nuki himself commented on his Twitter handle, “All pandemics are inherently political!” Another Twitter user wondered what would have happened if the Greek alphabet had a Bi or Mo, meaning Biden and Modi, would WHO skip those letters too? Many are speculating how WHO will continue naming the ever-evolving corona virus after we run out of Greek alphabet letters.  

WHO has remained serious. Omicron might be worse than the deadly Delta virus we all just experienced, and it might mean trouble, irrespective of what it’s called.