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Hi. I am curious to know this. It has been a year or two that we have been stuck on the Omicron Variant, How come there is no variant called Pi yet? As COVID-19 continues to mutate, why no Pi variant? I ask other people the same question, but they do not have a clear specific answer as to why there is no Pi variant yet. I hope you can give me a specific reasoning to why there is no variant called Pi yet.
The Greek letter naming of variants is through the WHO. This is a shorthand for the public to use as they discuss viral variants. Their rationale for deciding when a new variant is named is a combination of sequence analysis and other immunology data. In scientific articles, a different naming system is used, called PANGO. As new variants are identified through sequence, they receive PANGO names so that they all can be discussed individually and not under a general “Omicron” name. It is unclear when a Pi or other Greek letter name will be used as this virus mutates.Here is an article on CNN.Com with further detail:
