COVID-19 naming explained

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease and virus were sometimes called "coronavirus", "novel coronavirus", "Wuhan coronavirus", or "Wuhan pneumonia".[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

In January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) tentatively named it "2019-nCoV", short for "2019 Novel Coronavirus", or "2019 Novel Coronavirus Acute Respiratory Disease". This naming was based on the organization's 2015 guidelines for naming novel viruses and diseases, avoiding the use of geographic locations (such as Wuhan), in part to prevent social stigma.[6] [7] [8] A similar structure has also been used by the AP when referring to virus variants, for example, referring to it as the "Delta variant" rather than the "South African variant".

On 11 February 2020, the WHO named the disease COVID-19 (short for coronavirus disease 2019). That same day, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) formally announced it had named the causative virus as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) based upon its genetic similarity to the 2003 SARS-CoV. The separation between the disease and the causative virus is based on the same nomenclature policies that separate AIDS and the virus which causes it, HIV.[9]

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained that CO stands for coronavirus, VI for virus, and D stands for disease, while 19 stands for the year, 2019, that the outbreak was first detected.[10] As such, there has never been a "COVID-1" or any other "COVID-" series disease with a number below 19.[11]

Chinese virus

From January to March 2020, US President Donald Trump repeatedly described the virus as the "Chinese virus".[12] In March 2020, the president claimed to have abandoned the term, telling Fox News "we shouldn't make any more of a big deal out of it".[13] On March 18 and 19, 2020, Trump twice defended using the term "Chinese virus" amid instances of bigotry against Asians in the United States.[14] Trump referred to it as "the China Virus" at least as late as January 2021.[15]

This description was also used by members of the Spanish far-right political party Vox, especially by its leader Santiago Abascal in March 2020.[16]

CCP virus

The Epoch Times has reportedly funded right-wing groups promoting the use of the term "CCP virus" to lay blame on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the pandemic.[17] [18] Chinese-born New Zealand sculptor Chen Weiming created a 20-foot statue in Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo, California, depicting Chinese leader and CCP general secretary Xi Jinping with spike proteins as his hair, naming it "CCP virus".[19]

Stylization

Stylization of the term has varied since the virus's and disease's discovery. The World Health Organization (WHO) stylizes the disease as COVID-19 with all letters capitalized and many other organizations have followed their lead.[9] [20] [21] [22] The AP Stylebook, Chicago Manual of Style, and the Modern Language Association (MLA) have styled it similarly.[23] [24] [25] [26] Several observers have noted the importance of proper stylization, despite the seeming ridiculousness of worrying over such matters "at a time like this" (during the early days of the pandemic), recalling the confusion and prejudice which resulted from unclear or inconsistent naming as was the case with AIDS (which was called GRID/HTLV-III/LAV at various times) and non-A, non-B Hepatitis. They have also pointed out that future researchers will benefit from consistency when reviewing past data and research.[27] [28]

However, stylization as "Covid-19" has become common as well. Numerous news sources including The New York Times, CNN, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, NBCNews have presented the term with a capital C but all other letters as lower case.[29] As a result, use of "Covid-19" has become commonplace and even the accepted standard in some cases.[30] Use of "Covid-19" in news sources from the United Kingdom like The Guardian has also been the norm since most British newspapers only capitalize an entire acronym if the acronym is typically spelled out like "B-B-C" or "N-H-S" while acronyms which are pronounced as words, like "Nasa" or "Unicef" have their first letter capitalized and all subsequent letters lowercase.[27] [25]

While COVID-19 refers to the disease and SARS-CoV-2 refers to the virus which causes it, referring to the "COVID-19 virus" has been accepted.[23] [24] [28] Reference to SARS-CoV-2 as "the coronavirus" has become somewhat accepted despite such use implying that there is only one coronavirus species. Similarly, use of "COVID" for the disease (if first rendered as COVID-19) has been tolerated. Use of "the Coronavirus" to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in December 2019 has also been accepted. Although such use does not specify the year or which coronavirus-related disease is being referred to, given its all-encompassing impact at the time, such references have been deemed justifiable.[25] [23] [24] [20] [30] Use of "the" when referring to the disease, virus, or 2019 pandemic has been quite varied with some requiring use of "the" while others have not. The Oxford English Dictionary noted that "the" is typically not used when referring to the disease, COVID-19, but is not uncommon when referring to the virus.[20] [31]

Reference to the virus and/or the disease as "corona", "the corona", and "the rona" has also arisen in various parts of the world.[31]

Colloquial names

Numerous mutations and variants of SARS-CoV-2 have acquired colloquial vis-à-vis scientific labels for ease of pronunciation and usage, both in the lab and to some extent in mass media. The nomenclature draws from the corpus of mythology (both Greek and Scandinavian) and astronomy.[32]

Public messaging has been a concern given that these elements of popular reportage can be at variance with the Greek alphabet nomenclature established by the WHO;[33] other schemes have been proposed.[34]

Variants

Arcturus (XBB.1.16) was named on social media after the star;[35] Kraken (XBB.1.5), Cerberus (BQ.1.1), Typhon (BQ.1), and Gryphon (XBB) were coined by evolutionary biologist T. Ryan Gregory (from his own personal nomenclature of mythical creatures);[36] whereas Pelican, Quail, and Mockingbird (variants of 20I/501Y.V1), have not gained wider usage.[37] The BA.2.86 variant was named 'pirola' (sic) by a group of scientists on social media in late 2023, and was brought to public attention by an August edition of the Wall Street Journal.[38] (Inasmuch as the World Health Organization has suggested using astronomy for its plethora of names, the Twitter user @JPWeiland suggested the obscure Jovian asteroid 1082 Pirola "for its uniqueness" and the possibility of shifting the nomenclature to Pi or Rho if needed.)[39] Two KP.2 variants which rose to prominence in the U.S. in late May 2024 are commonly known by the acronym FLiRT, the responsible mechanisms being a phenylalanine (F) to leucine (L) mutation and an arginine (R) to threonine (T) mutation in the virus's spike protein.[40]

Mutations

Nicknames have also arisen for mutations such as Nelly (N501Y), Doug (and Douglas) (D614G), and even Eeek (E484K), initially meant as convenient labels in University of Bern lab discourse.[37]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Stein . Rob . 24 January 2020 . 2nd U.S. Case Of Wuhan Coronavirus Confirmed . . live . 4 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200124200323/https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/24/799208865/a-second-u-s-case-of-wuhan-coronavirus-is-confirmed . 24 January 2020.
  2. News: McNeil Jr. Donald G.. Donald McNeil Jr. . Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say. 2 February 2020. The New York Times. 4 April 2020. 0362-4331. 15 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210115002604/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/health/coronavirus-pandemic-china.html. live.
  3. News: Griffiths . James . 5 February 2020 . Wuhan coronavirus deaths spike again as outbreak shows no signs of slowing . . live . 4 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201220023733/https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/asia/wuhan-coronavirus-update-death-toll-spike-intl-hnk/index.html . 20 December 2020.
  4. Jiang S, Xia S, Ying T, Lu L . A novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) causing pneumonia-associated respiratory syndrome . Cellular & Molecular Immunology . 17 . 5 . 554 . May 2020 . 32024976 . 10.1038/s41423-020-0372-4 . 7091741 . free.
  5. 6 . Chan JF, Yuan S, Kok KH, To KK, Chu H, Yang J, Xing F, Liu J, Yip CC, Poon RW, Tsoi HW, Lo SK, Chan KH, Poon VK, Chan WM, Ip JD, Cai JP, Cheng VC, Chen H, Hui CK, Yuen KY . February 2020 . A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating person-to-person transmission: a study of a family cluster . . 395 . 10223 . 514–523 . 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30154-9 . 7159286 . 31986261 . free.
  6. World Health Organization Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases . May 2015 . World Health Organization (WHO) . 10665/163636 . free . 28 December 2020 . 12 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200212201906/https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/163636/WHO_HSE_FOS_15.1_eng.pdf . live .
  7. News: 11 February 2020 . Novel coronavirus named 'Covid-19': WHO . . . live . 11 February 2020 . https://archive.today/20200321085608/https://www.todayonline.com/world/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-named-covid-19-who . 21 March 2020.
  8. News: The coronavirus spreads racism against – and among – ethnic Chinese . . 17 February 2020 . 17 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200217223902/https://www.economist.com/china/2020/02/17/the-coronavirus-spreads-racism-against-and-among-ethnic-chinese . 17 February 2020 . live .
  9. Web site: Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it. World Health Organization (WHO). 13 March 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200228035651/https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it. 28 February 2020. live.
  10. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the EU/EEA and the UK – eighth update . 8 April 2020 . . live . 19 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200314223709/https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/RRA-sixth-update-Outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-disease-2019-COVID-19.pdf . 14 March 2020.
  11. Web site: Kellyanne Conway misleads on name for COVID-19, says it's 'not COVID-1'. Bill. McCarthy. PolitiFact. April 15, 2020. November 16, 2023.
  12. Web site: Lindaman . Dana . Viala-Gaudefroy . Jérôme . 13 April 2021 . 21 April 2020 . Donald Trump's 'Chinese virus': the politics of naming . https://web.archive.org/web/20220923160431/https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-chinese-virus-the-politics-of-naming-136796 . 23 September 2022 . 14 February 2022 . . en.
  13. News: Neuman . Scott . 27 March 2020 . In Phone Call, Trump And China's President Discuss Coronavirus Pandemic . en . . 14 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210218234722/https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/27/822380853/in-phone-call-trump-xi-discuss-coronavirus-pandemic . 18 February 2021.
  14. Web site: Vazquez . Maegan . Klein . Betsy . 19 March 2020 . 17 March 2020 . Trump again defends use of the term 'China virus' . https://web.archive.org/web/20221022004050/https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/trump-china-coronavirus/index.html . 22 October 2022 . CNN.
  15. News: Perrett . Connor . 3 January 2021 . US Surgeon General says he has 'no reason to doubt' the 350,000 COVID-19 death toll in the US after Trump baselessly questioned its accuracy . . 18 May 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712074914/https://www.businessinsider.com/jerome-adams-no-reason-to-doubt-350000-covid-19-deaths-2021-1 . 12 July 2022.
  16. Web site: Abascal llama "virus chino" al coronavirus y se apunta a la teoría no demostrada de que el SARS-CoV-2 salió de un laboratorio . Abascal calls the coronavirus "Chinese virus" and points to the unproven theory that SARS-CoV-2 came out of a laboratory . www.eldiario.es . 21 March 2023 . es.
  17. News: Manavis . Sarah . 22 April 2020 . How US conspiracy theorists are targeting local government in the UK . . 14 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220520085332/https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2020/04/councillors-politicians-uk-trump-conspiracy-theory-outlet-epoch-times-coronavirus . 20 May 2022.
  18. News: Keena . Colm . 2 June 2020 . Covid-19: Chinese communist party endangered world, says Newspaper . en . . 14 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220809040845/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/covid-19-chinese-communist-party-endangered-world-says-newspaper-1.4267125 . 9 August 2022.
  19. News: McGee . Charlie . 5 June 2021 . Weiming Chen unveils 'CCP Virus' at Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo . . 14 February 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220814081509/https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/05/artist-weiming-chen-unveils-ccp-virus-liberty-sculpture-park-yermo/7568268002/ . 14 August 2022.
  20. Web site: 12 July 2022 . 30 March 2020 . EDITORIAL STYLE GUIDE . https://web.archive.org/web/20220909010526/https://drexel.edu/identity/style/guide/ . 9 September 2022 . 24 October 2022 . Drexel University.
  21. Web site: Spelling, hyphens, capitalization . . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210805051245/https://www.fdu.edu/about/university-leadership-offices/office-of-communication/web/web-style/spelling/ . 5 August 2021.
  22. Web site: Brand and style guide - Spelling . . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220308193348/https://www.imperial.ac.uk/brand-style-guide/writing/spelling/ . 8 March 2022.
  23. Web site: Schuman . Nicole . Byrd . Andrew . AP Style Updates: COVID-19 . PRNews . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221018044843/https://www.prnewsonline.com/ap-style-covid/ . 18 October 2022 . 12 April 2022.
  24. Book: The Associated Press Stylebook 2020-2022 . 2020 . . New York, NY . 9780917360695 . 55th.
  25. Web site: Styling COVID-19 and Related Terms . . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220803185022/https://cmosshoptalk.com/2020/04/21/styling-covid-19-and-related-terms/ . 3 August 2022 . 21 April 2020.
  26. Web site: How does the MLA style the name of the 2019 coronavirus? . . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220520160330/https://style.mla.org/styling-coronavirus/ . 20 May 2022 . 23 April 2020.
  27. News: Ribbans . Elisabeth . COVID or Covid? The comfort of pedantry at a time of national crisis . 24 October 2022 . . 19 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220811174259/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/19/covid-pedantry-national-crisis-spelling-grammar . 11 August 2022.
  28. Vetter . Pauline . Eckerle . Isabella . Kaiser . Laurent . Covid-19: a puzzle with many missing pieces . . 19 February 2020 . 368 . m627 . 10.1136/bmj.m627 . 32075791 . 211214137 . 24 October 2022. free .
  29. News: King . Daniel . ThE sTaFf oF mOtHeR jOnEs iS vErY dIvIdEd OvEr CoViD cApItAlIzAtIoN. HeLp. COVID, Covid, covid, CoViD? Cast your vote. . 24 October 2022 . . 10 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220125135814/https://www.motherjones.com/media/2021/12/the-staff-of-mother-jones-is-very-divided-over-covid-capitalization-help/ . 25 January 2022.
  30. Web site: Covid-19 . . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220118224641/https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/brand/styleguide/?id=2e4d783d-911c-4dcd-90af-8eee77317110 . 18 January 2022.
  31. Web site: The language of Covid-19: special OED update . . 25 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220530233117/https://public.oed.com/webinars-and-events/the-language-of-covid-19/ . 30 May 2022 . 10 September 2020.
  32. Web site: Meet the Man Who Named Covid's New Variants. Brianna Abbott | Photographs by Nathan Cyprys for The Wall Street. Journal. 18 September 2023. WSJ.
  33. Web site: 11 August 2022 . The Omicron Follies: Covid-19 Variant Names Offer a Lesson in Bad Branding . 24 May 2023 . www.inc.com.
  34. Web site: "Common Names" for Notable SARS-CoV-2 Variants: Proposal for a Transparent and Consistent Nicknaming Process to Aid Communication . 30 May 2023 . whn.global.
  35. Web site: 9 May 2023 . Covid officials say new 'Arcturus' variant could be linked to conjunctivitis . 24 May 2023 . www.theguardian.com.
  36. Web site: 13 January 2023 . The New Covid Variant Name (And A List Of Other Variant Names) . 24 May 2023 . www.dictionary.com.
  37. Web site: 17 February 2021 . From Nelly to Doug: nicknames emerge for growing list of Covid variants . 24 May 2023 . www.theguardian.com.
  38. News: This Fall's Covid Variant Might Really Be Different. Sumathi. Reddy. WSJ.
  39. News: What we know about the new COVID strain nicknamed after an asteroid. ABC News . 19 August 2023. www.abc.net.au.
  40. Web site: Kee . Caroline . 2024-05-20 . The new COVID variants spreading in the US are called 'FLiRT.' But why? . 2024-05-29 . TODAY.com .

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