According to Reuters, the Indian government has issued a notice to social media platforms asking them to delete content involving the “Indian variant” of the COVID-19 virus. The letter issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Friday was not made public, but various media have seen it. It is not clear which social media received the letter, but the Indian government recently ordered Twitter to delete tweets and Facebook and Instagram to delete posts vital to their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has not scientifically cited such a variant of COVID-19. In any of its reports, the WHO did not associate the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus with the “Indian variant” and added the phrase “Completely false.” A variant of the coronavirus was first detected in India last year, and B.1.617 is believed to be responsible for the latest round of COVID-19 cases in South Asia. The World Health Organization classifies it as a global concern There is evidence that it is more contagious than other virus strains, but India’s method of reviewing information about the coronavirus and its variants is extreme. Organizations and scientists are critical of citing viruses and variants with geographic nicknames Because this may be stigmatized and inaccurate. The 2015 World Health Organization Infectious Disease Nomenclature Guidelines discourage the use of place names, human names or animal names.
However, as the National Geographic Magazine explains how the virus variants obtain names As pointed out in, current naming conventions are cumbersome and confusing, which makes it difficult for non-scientists to understand or remember them. “National Geographic” reported that WHO is working with virologists to propose a new virus naming method.