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The answers address your question here: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/52676/did-the-who-name-the-latest-covid-19-variant-omicron-skipping-the-nam

by cole-k 5y ago

The answers address your question here: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/52676/did-the-who-name-the-latest-covid-19-variant-omicron-skipping-the-names-xi-and https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/52676/did-the-w...

enlyth 5y ago
This answer does not address the why, only the 'did it happen'. Like other commenters have said, Nu was skipped because it sounded too similar to "New", and Xi was skipped because of Xi Jinping. It's not a conspiracy, it's to avoid political controversy, before someone starts a flamewar on here.
- dnautics 5y ago
  it's not a conspiracy, but it is lamesauce that the WHO said "it's a common surname" when Mu is a more common surname than Xi. They should have just said "it's the surname of a world leader" for honesty and transparency. Instead, they just discredited themselves.
  - wallacoloo 5y ago
    seriously. i get that it’s different organizations doing the naming here, but if the average person actually cared about name conflicts, we wouldn’t still be naming hurricanes after common first names. it’s 100% because of a single, notable person being impacted. maybe more conscientious naming IS a thing we should be doing, but we should make that change because of an organic desire for it — not because of a single prominent figure being offended.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - fastball 5y ago
    WHO was discredited at the very beginning of the pandemic when they said "nothing to worry about going on in China, we know because China says so".
- cole-k 5y ago
  Well, if you want to be picky, the parent comment asked > When did it get renamed to "Omicron"? which is neither "why" nor "did it happen". Regardless, it seems that the other commenters you're referring to are citing the same sources in the stack exchange thread [1] [2]. I'm not sure what additional clarification your comment has to offer, as there is already speculation on why Xi was skipped [1] [3]. [1] https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/52686 https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/52686 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29374052 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29374052 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373580 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373580
deleted 5y ago
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by cole-k 5y ago

enlyth 5y ago

This answer does not address the why, only the 'did it happen'. Like other commenters have said, Nu was skipped because it sounded too similar to "New", and Xi was skipped because of Xi Jinping. It's not a conspiracy, it's to avoid political controversy, before someone starts a flamewar on here.

dnautics 5y ago
it's not a conspiracy, but it is lamesauce that the WHO said "it's a common surname" when Mu is a more common surname than Xi. They should have just said "it's the surname of a world leader" for honesty and transparency. Instead, they just discredited themselves.
- wallacoloo 5y ago
  seriously. i get that it’s different organizations doing the naming here, but if the average person actually cared about name conflicts, we wouldn’t still be naming hurricanes after common first names. it’s 100% because of a single, notable person being impacted. maybe more conscientious naming IS a thing we should be doing, but we should make that change because of an organic desire for it — not because of a single prominent figure being offended.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- fastball 5y ago
  WHO was discredited at the very beginning of the pandemic when they said "nothing to worry about going on in China, we know because China says so".
cole-k 5y ago
Well, if you want to be picky, the parent comment asked > When did it get renamed to "Omicron"? which is neither "why" nor "did it happen". Regardless, it seems that the other commenters you're referring to are citing the same sources in the stack exchange thread [1] [2]. I'm not sure what additional clarification your comment has to offer, as there is already speculation on why Xi was skipped [1] [3]. [1] https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/52686 https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/52686 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29374052 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29374052 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373580 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373580

deleted 5y ago

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