When did it get renamed to "Omicron"?
Also, dammit, now it's a thing, and it's got its own little soundbite-able name instead of "B.1.1.529".
Also, dammit, now it's a thing, and it's got its own little soundbite-able name instead of "B.1.1.529".
Everyone knows the real reason they skipped Xi, you're not fooling anybody.
Ξύνω, Ξύστρα, Οξυγόνο, άνοιξε, ξένος, ξηρό, λέξη
It's pronounced ξι, exactly. "ξ".
Take it from a Greek ;)
>“‘Nu’ is too easily confounded with ‘new,’ and ‘Xi’ was not used because it is a common last name,” the WHO said, adding that the agency’s “best practices for naming disease suggest avoiding ‘causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.’”
>Those best practices were outlined in a May 2015 document issued by the agency. The organization said at the time that it wanted to “minimize unnecessary negative effects on nations, economies and people” when naming infectious diseases.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-heal...
If you look at most common surnames https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames then Mu is ranked at 188, whereas Xi is nowhere to be found. Xi was solely skipped due to Xi Jinping.
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.
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.
> 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