New naming system should go live soon: WHO Chief Scientist Soumya SwaminathanThe World Health Organisation (WHO) would unveil a system of naming viruses that would be inspired from the way tropical storms are named, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told The Hindu. “The new naming system should go live soon - yes it will be names like hurricanes. But popular usage of the virus has frequently referred to place names, with early references to SARSCOV2 as the “Wuhan virus”. In several prior briefings on international variants of concern, the Ministry and other government officials have routinely referred to these variants by their country of origin. This was a practice that began in 2004 and until then cyclones, like virus names, had alphabetical references.

Source: The Hindu May 18, 2021 14:50 UTC