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Media around the world, from small platforms to large news networks, have used 'centaurus' to refer to the BA.2.75 subvariant of omicron.
A Google search returns headlines in different languages: “Is Centaurus the most contagious subvariant of COVID-19?”;
“What do we know about Centaurus?
The most contagious variant of COVID-19”;
“What is the difference between the BA.5 sub-variant and the Centaurus?”
On July 1, Twitter user Xabier Ostale announced:
“I just named the BA.2.75 variant after a galaxy.
Its new name is the Centaurus strain
.
The post has 76 retweets and 357 likes.
Ostale is not a scientist, nor an expert, his Twitter account has just under 7,000 followers and is dedicated to sharing health information.
But some people give him credit for the name by which the new variant is known.
“I find it incredible that some random guy on Twitter decided to make the BA.2.75 variant known as 'centaurus' and that it worked,” wrote Ed Yong, a science reporter for The Atlantic magazine.
Is it true that Xabier Ostale was the one who gave the name centaurus to the new subvariant of COVID-19?
Everything seems to indicate that yes
, it
was this Twitter user who launched the name to the public
and its use has been gaining ground in the media.
Is Centaurus the official name of this subvariant?
Not for the World Health Organization.
I just named the variant BA.2.75 after a galaxy.
His new name is Centaurus."
XABIER OSTALE user on twitter
The WHO, with the help of a group of experts, decided to name the new variants of COVID-19 using "letters of the Greek alphabet, that is, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, which will be easier and more practical for the non-scientific public" says the organization's official site.
With this they also prevented them from being known by the name of the country in which they identified themselves and thus eliminate stigma and discrimination, the WHO reported in May 2021.
What we know about BA.2.75
BA.2.75, reported for the first time in India in May, is a "subvariant of omicron in follow-up", details the WHO.
In other words, it has yet to be determined if "it poses an additional threat to global public health compared to other circulating viruses", if so, it would be reconsidered giving it "its own label".
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This subvariant is present in at least 10 countries and “it is still too early to know if it has additional immune invasion properties or if it is more serious clinically.
We have to wait and watch
,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, a WHO senior scientist, explained on July 5.
The omicron subvariants B.5 and B.4, as of July 20, were responsible for 90% of infections in the United States, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ).
Being B.5 the most predominant with 77.9% of the cases.
So far, BA.2.75 has been detected in eight states across the country, including California, Texas and New York.
'Centaurus' and popular opinion
That the WHO does not coin the name does not stop people from repeating it.
"Don't ask me to back down on naming BA.2.75 a centaurus because I just won't," Ostale tweeted on July 19.
Positive blood sample for the BA 2.75 omicron subvariant.
Photo taken in a laboratory in Spain. Juan Ruiz Paramo / Getty Images/iStockphoto
"If we decide to call her centaurus, that's up to us," one user replied in support.
"I think you meant 'Don't ask me to go back on naming centaurus after centaurus.'
What is BA.2.75?” someone else commented.
Centaurus A "is an active galaxy located about 12 million light-years from Earth
," according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA in English).
It is "the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky -which makes it an ideal target for amateur astronomers-", details NASA.
Centaur is also a creature from Greek mythology, half man, half horse.
Ostale argues that giving variants and sub-variants of COVID-19 simpler or more attractive names, such as that of a galaxy, could allow people outside the scientific sphere to better understand them and share the information with their acquaintances.
[Alert of the spread of the BA.5 subvariant of omicron throughout the United States]
“If they are told that BA.2.75 is emerging in many countries,
they won't get a clue, they won't even be able to talk to others about it
,” he explained in a thread.
"If they are told that centaurus is more transmissible and potentially more dangerous for this or that, they can go talk to others... 'be careful, now centaurus is coming and in the news they have said that it is more transmissible,'" he assured. .
And it seems to have worked.
Search terms such as 'centaurus symptoms', 'centaurus variant' or 'centaurus variant covid' have registered a spike in the first days of July, according to Google Trends.
If they tell (people) that BA.2.75 is coming up in many countries, they won't get a clue, they won't even be able to talk to others about it."
Xabier Ostale User on Twitter
The same thing happened on Twitter, Vice said.
This medium noted that between May and June the results in that social network referred to the galaxy, while from July the content predominates over the subvariant.
On July 13, Tom Wenseleers, a professor of evolutionary biology, theoretical biology, and biostatistics at KU Leuven University in Belgium, tweeted about what he called "the latest scandal" in the scientific community, suggesting that some experts were upset by Ostale's audacity to baptize the subvariant and that the name be replicated by the media.
“That tells you that maybe the WHO should rename the variants of concern,” he
suggested.
Wenseleers maintains that 'Kappa for B.1.617.1', a low-impact variant, was previously used, but has not been used for “the omicron sub-variants BA.2, BA.5 and BA.2.75, even though each has great advantages of contagion”.
Although predominantly predominant in India for now, BA.2.75 “remains the most likely candidate to cause a wave of infections in the fall and vaccine manufacturers and drug agencies would do well to take this into account,” he explained.
Meanwhile Ostale insists: “BA.2.75 is centaurus.
Wear a mask and avoid crowds.”
