I was pondering how Delta won’t be the last variant we deal with… What next? 🦠 For those who don’t know their Greek alphabet:
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega.
💬 John Philpin thanks for reminding what comes after pi … old party trick - recite Greek alphabet - but people tend to get bored half way through, so the last part doesn’t get used as much …
The other one was saying “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”
.. and yes - strange parties!
Miraz Jordan @JohnPhilpin I realised I knew the first few, then had a vague notion of the next few, then it was all a jumble.
Jessica Smith I'm not really sure how they determine what order to hand out the letters, because here in Melbourne we had an outbreak of the Kappa variant a few months back and I thought it evolved before Delta (1.617.1 vs 1.617.2, or something). I also know there's a Lambda variant pretty widespread in South America that has a number of experts worried (it seems more infectious and resistant to vaccines than Alpha and Gamma – although how it compares to Delta, they don't seem to know yet).
Jessica Smith It seems like they kind of are, because it seems like all the letters in the first half of the alphabet have been used but none in the second half? Just not strictly…
Miraz Jordan @jayeless Aha! www.who.int/activitie... There are Variants of Concern (currently alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and Variants of Interest (currently eta, iota, kappa, lambda). That might be as much as I care to know right now. 🤪