In an attempt to avoid stigma, the World Health Organization has come up with a new name for the coronavirus illness now affecting people in 25 countries: COVID-19, which stands for "coronavirus disease 2019."
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted on Tuesday that WHO "had to find a name that does not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual, or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Why is Tesla stumbling?In the Spotlight More competition, confusion about the future and a giant pay package for Elon Musk
-
How Taylor Swift changed copyright negotiations in musicunder the radar The success of Taylor's Version rerecordings has put new pressure on record labels
-
Job scams are increasingly common. Here's what to look out for.The Explainer You should never pay for an application or give out your personal info before being hired
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cowSpeed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and earlySpeed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
-
US bans final type of asbestosSpeed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
-
The hollow classroomOpinion Remote school let kids down. It will take much more than extra tutoring for kids to recover.
-
Excess screen time is making children only see what is in front of themUnder the radar The future is looking blurry. And very nearsighted.
-
Covid-19: what to know about UK's new Juno and Pirola variantsin depth Rapidly spreading new JN.1 strain is 'yet another reminder that the pandemic is far from over'
-
Long-term respiratory illness is here to stayThe Explainer Covid is not the only disease with a long version
