Saturday, 27 November 2021
So there won't be an Xi variant of Covid-19
The World Health Organisation has moved swiftly to make sure that there can never be an Xi variant of Covid-19. The new one emanating from Southern Africa and considered to be potentially the most dangerous and transmissable one to date was described as the Nu variant. That new name only lasted a few hours because, presumably, some official in China, possibly someone working high up in the WHO, realised with heart in mouth that when the next strain turned up, the new variant might be called the Xi variant because xi follows nu in the Greek alphabet. Even though the alphabet hasn't been followed strictly, some wag in WHO might have insisted on Nu being followed by Xi, just to emphasise to the world at large that Covid originated in Wuhan in China and therefore it was right and proper and appropriate that one of the variants should be called Xi - although of course not in honour of, or in deference to, let alone as an insultt to Xi Zinping, the Chinese president who gets very angry when anyone suggests the virus started in China at all. Anyway the danger passed. The WHO dropped Nu and went for Omicron, skipping Xi which in the Greek alphabet sits between the two letters. Diplomatic crisis averted. If variants get all the way to Omega, the last letter in the Greek alphabet I bet the watchmakers with that name will kick up a helluva fuss. With any luck the pandemic will be over by then and there will be no Omega variant or for that matter pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi or psi.
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