When we are born, we are given names that stay with us for our whole lives. Some names include good wishes and hopes from parents, while others may be special and easy to remember. But do you know how the new coronavirus got its name?
The task of naming a virus is no less important than naming a person.When a disease breaks out, the official (官方的) naming of a new virus is often late and may lead to many problems. Over the past ten years, some improper names have caused problems. In 2009, the "swine flu (猪流感)" was widely used before the official name, HINI virus, was announced. This led Egypt to kill all of its pigs even though it didn't spread among people who hadn't been near pigs. In 2015, the name MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, (中东呼吸综合征)made people of this region angry.
So in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the names of viruses should be easy to remember but avoid being named after places, people, animals and foods. Following these rules, the new coronavirus we are suffering from was named "COVID-19" by the WHO on Feb 11, 2020. In this name, "CO" means "corona", "VI" sands for "virus" and "D" means "disease".
