It's been two years since the initial outbreak of the pandemic, and it is far from over. The only thing that is coming to an end is people's patience.
Today, we got the news about a new variant. Much more transmissible than all previous ones. It's name? Well, I am not going to say the "official" name given by the WHO. Because at this point, the naming scheme has simply become pathetic.
In the early days of the pandemic, this damn spiky thing was not called "COVID", but "Wuhan virus". This was the name used on official Chinese media. Yes, you did not hear me wrong. The term "武漢肺炎", literally translating to "Wuhan pneumonia", also used to be the official Chinese name of this disease.
One might argue that, the term "Wuhan virus" is not very scientific, even though it correctly bears the name of the virus' origin. I totally agree with that. But let us not forget that, naming has long been the most unscientific part in science. I bet you've heard about the "weightless" environment inside a spacecraft, where the weight of objects certainly do NOT disappear, or the "twin paradox" in relativity theory, which is indeed about twins but has NOTHING paradoxical in it, or a species of rodent called "Guinea pigs" that are NEITHER form Guinea, NOR related to pigs.
However, there is nothing inherently bad about these scientific misnomers. Generations of scientists and science students have learned to live with them. In fact, seeing through the apparent "name" of something and grasping its essence via scientific observation and reasoning, is one important aspect of scientific learning and research. In the end of the day, the name just becomes a "label" which might bear, as a relic, an indication of its initial misunderstanding, but it's nothing scientifically significant.
Therefore, from a scientific standpoint, it is entirely acceptable to continue using the terms "Wuhan virus" and "Wuhan pneumonia". The real reason for the name change is not scientific, but political.
You might think I am going to change topic, and go deeper into the political aspect. But boy you are wrong! There is NOTHING DEEP in the politics here! It's as simple as this: Xi does not want to lose face, and the WHO is willing to suck his dick. Why? because MONEY and POWER! That's it. It's an open secret. We all know it, but some people just pretend not to.
About the whole greek alphabet thing, I also refrain from going into, because there is nothing new there either. It's been a while since I began writing this and I have something else to do tonight, so I am just going to end this post by saying the following:
Firstly, whatever the name of this virus, we all know where it comes from.
Secondly, whatever the name of this variant, I am going to stick to the naming convention that the WHO itself has made and call it:
The Chinese Wuhan Virus, Xi-variant.
Thirdly, the very name of the country is a misnomer. It is not a "people's republic", but a dictator's wet dream. Putting the word "people" in the country's name is the biggest insult to its people.