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Which is not any less ambiguous.

nCOV-2019 seems okay.

References to SARS in Hong Kong news were often accompanied with references with 2003, the year of the outbreak.

great, now what happens if another coronavirus epidemic hits? do you still call it "novel coronavirus", because it's novel? do whoever's in charge of naming get their act together and allocate a number in hours rather than weeks?

Novel novel coronavirus. The next one after will be novel novel novel coronavirus. Reminds me of some people I've worked with who insist on long email threads with attached words docs as their "project management" methodology.

When the string of Re:Re:Re:Fwd:Re:Re: reach the line width of your email client you start a new thread.

People have been calling it coronavirus since day one.

Not the epidemiologists, because "coronavirus" is way too vague.

People. Not every person. Not epidemiologists specifically, obviously.

But the name has now stuck.

Yeah, but the WHO isn't naming things for "people".

Any more than the fact that "people" call things stomach flu when they're not at all influenza related changes that things are called "norovirus" and "rotavirus".

People without any knowledge of the topic, you mean.