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Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives. HOW EACH OF US CAN PREPARE FOR THE NEXT PANDEMIC Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives. A NEW BOOK MANAGES TO GET CLIMATE SCIENCE BADLY WRONG A New Book Manages to Get Climate Science Badly Wrong. In Unsettled, Steven Koonin deploys that highly misleading label to falsely suggest that we don’t understand the risks well enough to FLU HAS DISAPPEARED WORLDWIDE DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC The U.S. saw about 600 deaths from influenza during the 2020–2021 flu season. In comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated COURT ORDERS SHELL TO SLASH EMISSIONS IN HISTORIC RULING Royal Dutch Shell PLC must slash its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels, The Hague District Court ruled in a decision that could reverberate around the world. “This is a IF YOU DON'T HAVE COVID VACCINE SIDE EFFECTS, ARE YOUAUTHOR: STEPHANI

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Deadly Air Pollution Doesn't Respect State Borders Steam Locomotives Make Subway Air Sweet and Pleasant Reducing Street Sprawl Could Help Combat Climate Change

Public Health

DISEASE CAUSED BY THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS OFFICIALLY HAS A NAME:

COVID-19

The World Health Organization chose the name based on the type of virus and the year the first cases were seen

* By Andrew Joseph

, STAT

on February 11, 2020

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Coronavirus. Credit: Getty Images

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Read more from this special report: THE NEW CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR " data-newsletterpromo-text=" Sign up for _Scientific American_’s free newsletters.

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data-newsletterpromo-image="https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/CF54EB21-65FD-4978-9EEF80245C772996_source.jpg" data-newsletterpromo-button-text="Sign Up" data-newsletterpromo-button-link="https://www.scientificamerican.com/page/newsletter-sign-up/?origincode=2018_sciam_ArticlePromo_NewsletterSignUp" name="articleBody" itemprop="articleBody"> The disease caused by the novel coronavirus has a name: COVID-19. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, announced the name Tuesday, giving a specific identifier to a disease that has been confirmed in more than 42,000 people and caused more than 1,000 deaths in China. There have been fewer than 400 cases in 24 other countries, with one death. In choosing the name, WHO advisers focused simply on the type of virus that causes the disease. Co and Vi come from coronavirus, Tedros explained, with D meaning disease and 19 standing for 2019, the year the first cases were seen.

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The virus that causes the disease has been known provisionally as 2019-nCoV. Also on Tuesday, a coronavirus group from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, which is responsible for naming new viruses, proposed designating the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2, according to a preprint of a paper

posted

online. (Preprints are versions of papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.) The name reflects the genetic similarities between the new coronavirus and the coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003. Read more from this special report: THE NEW CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR In selecting COVID-19 as the name of the disease, the WHO name-givers steered clear of linking the outbreak to China or the city of Wuhan, where the illness was first identified. Although origin sites have been used in the past to identify new viruses, such a namesake is now seen as denigrating. Some experts have come to regret naming the infection caused by a different coronavirus the Middle East respiratory syndrome. “Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing,” Tedros said. “It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks.” Viruses and the disease they cause do not have to have related names—think HIV and AIDS—but more recently those responsible for the formal naming process have kept them associated. For example, SARS, the disease, is caused by SARS-CoV, the virus. The provisional name of the new virus stemmed from the year it was first seen (2019), the fact that it was new (n), and a member of the coronavirus family (CoV).

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A clear name could also stop the ad hoc identifiers that have sprung up in the press and online, many of which, like the Wuhan virus or Wu Flu, linked the virus to the city. _Republished with permission from STAT . This article originally appeared on February 11 2020_

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