WHO gives coronavirus variants ‘easy-to-pronounce, non-stigmatizing’ Greek alphabet names

The World Health Organization (WHO) rolled out a new naming system for tracking COVID-19 variants that the agency says creates “easy-to-pronounce and non-stigmatizing” labels for the new mutations. Going forward, the agency will use letters of the Greek alphabet when discussing the variants rather than pango lineage, scientific names or by referring to them by the country they were detected in, which the WHO says is “stigmatizing and discriminatory.” 

“While they have their advantages, these…