Goodbye SARS-CoV-2, hello 'Betacoronavirus pandemicum'? @cofford.bsky.social reports on the controversial renaming of thousands of viruses. www.science.org/content/arti... - ThreadSky

martinenserink.bsky.social • 86 days ago

Goodbye SARS-CoV-2, hello 'Betacoronavirus pandemicum'?

@cofford.bsky.social reports on the controversial renaming of thousands of viruses. https://www.science.org/content/article/silly-and-pompous-official-new-names-viruses-rile-researchers

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bstevensonlab.bsky.social•84 days ago

Taxonomists doing taxonomy for the sake of taxonomy, and without regard to the larger impacts.

cathsterner.medsky.social•83 days ago

This just seems like another way to downplay the importance of public health.

waternymph.bsky.social•84 days ago

Trumpitis and Musk Disease should be top of the list really.

i270exit1.bsky.social•84 days ago

Really not a big deal. Just write the new term once in your papers. People will continue to use common names, just like we do for mice and guinea pigs. Taxonomy has long disrespected viruses, the most efficient life form, by excluding them from genus-species nomenclature. This is a fix.

jollyfriar76.bsky.social•83 days ago

Typical,, nothing else to do, so rename shit,, no wonder people doubt science,, focus on ivory tower and don't reason why, or how, seems counterproductive

pvanheus.bsky.social•84 days ago

Betacoronavirus pandemicum isn't SARS-CoV-2, its a species that includes both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7095448/). One of many niggles in the ICTV taxonomy (e.g. SIV & HIV1 are both species even though one is an ancestor of the other)

eddieholmes.bsky.social•84 days ago

Correct!

bindermichi.bsky.social•85 days ago

Still Beta? I mean it has been in Early Access for years now

cyrilpedia.bsky.social•84 days ago

Wasnt that a character in From Dusk til Dawn?

christianjb.bsky.social•84 days ago

It will never go viral.

docvadeboncoeur.bsky.social•84 days ago

At the time many people just reject the idea that something did happen, this will certainly not help.

julieleask.bsky.social•84 days ago

Being able to recognise the name of a virus is fundamental to communicating about it. Changing the name of HIV, SARS-CoV-2 etc will create a nightmare of confusion and inconsistency.

erikaherzog.bsky.social•83 days ago

Trust us Americans to screw up pandemic responses further. I don’t know why I thought the WHO was the body that named the various variants. Ugh.

docvadeboncoeur.bsky.social•84 days ago

But they should have choose a simpler name for SARS-CoV-2, which no one can easily remember. Bad choice in a pandemic context. Even COVID-19 is a stupid choice.

guyshammguy.bsky.social•84 days ago

Yeah betacoronavirus pandemicum really sticks with you

stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social•84 days ago

christoph: well, it didn't take long to have "m-pox" universally accepted as replacement of "monkey pox" without causing communication issues.

davidjorgonson.bsky.social•84 days ago

That was simpler and shorter, and monkey pox was inaccurate

ericstrong.bsky.social•84 days ago

There is precisely zero chance that physicians will be changing the terminology they use with patients or with each other.

yousitonmyspot.bsky.social•86 days ago

sounds like homeopathy was the godfather.

martinenserink.bsky.social•86 days ago

Here are some of the other other new 'latinized' names:

HIV-1: Lentivirus humimdef1
West Nile virus: Orthoflavivirus nilense
Shark River virus: Orthobunyavirus squalofluvii
🧪

hiwthi.bsky.social•85 days ago

so we don't have to learn from SARS-2, because it's definitely gone now...?

debraginsberg.bsky.social•84 days ago

So now we’ll have to start saying, “the virus formerly known as…”? Like Prince and Twitter?

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