I see that Delta is refusing to call the 'Delta' version of covid by its name. (Copied from Yahoo)
Delta Air Lines does not use the name of the new COVID-19 variant named "delta" by the World Health Organization.- CEO Ed Bastian told the Wall Street Journal "we just call it the variant."
- The Greek alphabet is used when naming variants to discourage stigmatization based on their country of origin.
Delta Air Lines has joined Corona beer in the exclusive club of brands that have been wronged by the naming of the novel coronavirus and its variants.
Among the latest variants of the novel coronavirus is B.1.617.2 variant, better known as the "delta" variant. The World Health Organization began giving variants official names based on letters of the Greek alphabet to reduce stigmatizing names based on country of origin.
The delta variant, for example, was first discovered in India and has been known for being more easily transmissible than predecessors, even among vaccinated individuals. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, believes the Delta variant will peak in late September, as Insider's Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce reported, as it's now the dominant strain in the US.
But Delta Air Lines isn't amused at the irony and its chief executive officer, Ed Bastian, told the Wall Street Journal that they don't call the delta variant by its WHO-given name. "We just call it the variant," Bastian said.
Dr. Henry Ting, Delta's chief health officer, first joked about the association in a June tweet when replying to a customer that joked the variant should be named after rival United Airlines. "We prefer to call it the B.1.617.2 variant since that is so much more simple to say and remember…" Ting
on June 29.
Delta must be one of the strongest brands in the industry and no one would change it but it does seem unfortunate to share a name with the NATO phoentic alphabet. When I was at Atlanta I think think that the pa in the transit used the standard NATO phoentic alphabet for most concourses but it was 'D for David' Probably just as well.
I presume that the airline was too small to worry about when devising the NATO alphabet & callsigns.
I also wonder if there has ever been any confusion between German registered aircraft and Delta flights.