Officially, the new coronavirus mutation found in South African countries is called B.1.1.529. In an effort to avoid the stigma of countries in which mutations first appear, the World Health Organization decided shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic to give neutral names to mutations, using the letters of the Greek alphabet.
Thus, the Alpha mutation was what everyone initially called the British mutation, while the Beta mutation was the one that first appeared in South Africa. The Gama mutation was first identified in Brazil and the Delta mutation in India.
But when it came time to name the mutation originally found in South African countries such as Botswana, the World Health Organization chose Omicron, not Ni or Xi, next in line.
“Ni (as it would be written in Latin characters) is easily confused with new,” the WHO spokesman told the Times. “And Xi was not used because it is a common adjective,” he added.
Thus, as the purpose of the WHO is to avoid promoting a national, social, regional, professional, cultural or racial group, the “omicron” was chosen for the name of the new mutation.
Of course, there were those who criticized the WHO for excluding “Xi”, believing that it did so for fear of backlash from China, as the Latin letter “Xi” is synonymous with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s surname (although there is a difference in pronunciation).
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