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This is something I've personally done. I call it B1617 because I thought it was bad taste when the last president called it the [country] virus, or the [city]
by neither_color 5y ago
This is something I've personally done. I call it B1617 because I thought it was bad taste when the last president called it the [country] virus, or the [city] flu, and I feel Indians deserve the same respect.
- loceng 5y agoSo is it okay to say B1617 from India or believed to have come from India?
- neither_color 5y agoThere are no hard rules to this. I just default to offering Indians the same respect that I give to other countries with more leverage to kick reporters out or take punitive action against western media bigotry. If you feel that this is a burden, then it's all the more reason you should defend Indians' dignity because to do so is to force your ideological rivals to live to up to their own standards.
- Red-Ted 5y agoPeople call the Kent variant the Kent/ UK variant I'm from Kent and couldn't give a damn. People need to stop being so easily offended.
- exmadscientist 5y agoThe political stuff aside, please don't call it "B1617", because the name in that nomenclature is properly "B.1.617". The dots do have meaning and tell the history of the strain.
- lima 5y agoStill okay in casual conversation (vs. scientific discourse).
- exmadscientist 5y agoNo, it's really not. Getting names right is important. Failing to do so offends people (when it's a person's name) and confuses everyone (always). When you make an unforced error like this, you confuse everyone who knows what they're talking about, because they can't understand you easily. So don't make unforced errors. Get names right. You wouldn't trust a compiler that silently patched up incorrect variable names, would you? So why do that to people?
- doktorhladnjak 5y agoAnd it's really B.1.617.2 to distinguish it from the variant of concern first seen in South Africa, B.1.617.1
- exmadscientist 5y agoB.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 are closely related (along with B.1.617.3) and all might be called the "Indian Variant" in popular usage. The "South African Variant" is B.1.351.
- hn_user82179 5y agoThat's a great point I hadn't really thought about. There's not much of a difference between this and calling Covid-19 the "China Virus", besides the intent of the speaker.