Traditional figures, including Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr., have condemned the World Health Organization for skirting the Greek letter Xi and naming the new Covid variation Omicron.
The WHO has been naming Covid variations after Greek letters of the letters in order, accepting this would “be easier and more practical to be discussed by non-scientific audiences.”
Utilizing that framework, the accompanying variation ought to have been called Nu and, from that point forward, Xi.
Following a declaration on Friday that the new variation would be called Omicron, a theory emerged that the two letters were jumped to stay away from disarray with the English word “new” and abstain from irritating Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“If the WHO is this scared of the Chinese Communist Party, how can they be trusted to call them out the next time they’re trying to cover up a catastrophic global pandemic?” Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted.
If the WHO is this scared of the Chinese Communist Party, how can they be trusted to call them out the next time they’re trying to cover up a catastrophic global pandemic? https://t.co/wURdLcdqw2
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 26, 2021
Cruz responded to a tweet that recommended the WHO decided to skip Xi to “avoid stigmatizing a region.”
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in, tweeting: “As far as I’m concerned the original will always be the Xi variant.”
Both repeated manner of speaking normally in conservative circles that faults China for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previous President Trump and his partners have regularly alluded to the infection as the “China infection.”
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Washington Examiner journalist Jerry Christmas said that the wellbeing body chose not to utilize Xi since it’s a generally expected last name in China.
WHO on skipping Nu/Xi to dub variant Omicron: “Nu is too easily confounded with ‘new’ & Xi wasn’t used b/c it’s a common last name & WHO best practices for naming disease suggest avoiding causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, & ethnic groups.”
— Jerry Christmas 🎄🎅🏽 (@JerryDunleavy) November 26, 2021
He said they likewise affirmed that Nu was not utilized as a result of its similitude to “new.”
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