Did the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy (ICTV) Announce the Name SARS-CoV-2 on February 11, 2020, as Claimed by the WHO?
No, they did not. [UPDATE: WHO says they did.]
If you’ve ever looked at the WHO page Naming the coronavirus disease and the virus that causes it, then you seen the semantic gymnastics around the question “Why do the virus and the disease have different names?”
I read this page again yesterday while going through a batch of emails I obtained last month that are connected to how 2019-ncov was renamed SARS-CoV-2.
With the benefit of fresh eyes and a more informed sense of chronology, this statement stood out:
ICTV announced "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” as the name of the new virus on 11 February 2020.
In my opinion, this is misleading at best.
The ICTV data secretary confirmed to me via email today that the organization did not make a formal announcement of the virus name that day or on any other day.
For background and further explanation, keep reading.
I reached out to ICTV yesterday after observing and documenting the following sequence of “events”:
January 23-24, 2020
Via email, the ICTV Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) discusses and reaches an agreement about the species and a name for 2019-nov and begins to write a paper that is eventually shared as a pre-print in early February and published by Nature in early March.1
January 30, 2020
WHO recommends the interim names “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”and ‘2019-nCoV’ for “the disease causing the current outbreak” and “the virus,” respectively, and say, “The final decision on the official name of the virus will be made by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses” (despite the fact that ICTV doesn’t make such decisions).
Feb 5, 2020
CSG submits paper to Nature.
ICTV makes a statement that distinguishes three names to be decided and who is responsible for each: The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is concerned with the designation and naming of virus taxa (i.e. species, genus, family, etc.) rather than the designation of virus common names or disease names. For an outbreak of a new viral disease, there are three names to be decided: the disease, the virus and the species. The World Health Organization (WHO) is responsible for the first, expert virologists for the second, the ICTV for the third.”
The ICTV statement also reports the status of the CSG’s work: “As experts on coronaviruses, the ICTV Coronaviridae Study Group is currently studying the classification (taxonomy) of the new virus. And given that they are experts on this family of viruses, they are also contributing their expertise to the naming of the virus.”
Feb 7, 2020
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: The species and its viruses – a statement of the Coronavirus Study Group preprint posted on bioRxiv.2 Although Feb 11, 2020 is listed as the upload date, the url indicates Feb 7, 2020. A reaction regarding the name SARS-CoV-2 from Shi Zvengli and colleagues - sent to Ralph Baric on Feb 13, 2020 - also says the pre-print was uploaded on Feb 7, 2020.
Feb 11, 2020
Upload date listed on CSG pre-print [Disputed, see above]
WHO announces the disease name COVID-19.
WHO press conference participants say coronavirus and corona, but not SARS-CoV-2. When a reporter asks about the virus name, Soumya Swaminathan makes no mention of ICTV, CSG, or SARS-CoV-2.
The WHO 2/11/2020 Situation Report still shows name of virus as 2019-nCoV.
My question to ICTV was whether there is any documentation (e.g., press release, social media post, press conference) which shows the ICTV announced the name SARS-CoV-2 on February 11, 2020, as indicated by the WHO.
The ICTV data secretary said:
The ICTV did not make a formal announcement of the virus name since the Coronaviridae Study Group was acting independently. The ICTV’s formal role, as designated by the Virology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, is to classify viruses into formal taxa and name those taxa. It does not name viruses. But given that ICTV Study Groups are formed for each virus family, and that these Study Groups are composed of individuals with considerable domain expertise concerning the viruses in their family of their interest, they will take on additional responsibilities such as the naming of the original SARS virus as well as SARS-CoV-2.
I believe the WHO announcement was in response to the preprint release of the Nature article posted on bioRxiv on February 11, 2020 (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.937862v1). But I would note that the WHO is mistaken when they suggest that the ICTV is responsible for official virus names. As indicated above, the ICTV is only responsible for formal virus taxa.
…to which I replied:
Thank you!
This is all incredibly helpful and I agree with what you’ve said about the CSG, its role, etc. A Feb 5, 2020 statement from ICTV agrees too.
Regarding the pre-print, I note that although Feb 11, 2020 is listed as the upload date, the url indicates Feb 7, 2020.
A reaction regarding the name SARS-CoV-2 from Shi Zvengli and colleagues - sent to Ralph Baric on Feb 13, 2020 - also says the pre-print was uploaded on Feb 7, 2020. (Attached for your reference.)
The paper was submitted to Nature on February 5, 2020 (prior to pre-print upload), accepted on February 19, 2020, and published online March 2, 2020.
All of that to say, it seems the WHO is asserting that the CSG’s preprint was the ICTV’s announcement of the virus name.
In fact, the ICTV organization didn’t announce anything. Rather, the WHO announced the disease name COVID-19 on February 11, 2020, and made only general references to “the virus,” coronaviruses, etc. in its press conference. On Twitter, they were calling it by their preferred name and (in general) preferred to say things like “the virus responsible for COVID-19” and “the COVID-19 virus”.
I emailed the WHO with an inquiry this afternoon and hope to receive a reply soon.
Until then, as far as I can tell, the organization that declared a pandemic into existence needs to revise its language about the ICTV making an “announcement” about a virus name on February 11, 2020.
UPDATE: A WHO spokesperson said ICTV did make the announcement on Feb 11, 2020, so I will keep trying to get documentation.
CORRECTION: In my original post, I accidentally transposed words: The statement on the WHO page says “name of the new virus” - not “new name of the virus”.
Continued…
These are the emails I obtained via FOI request and will share soon. h/t
for the conversation that inspired me to submit the request.See
“What’s in a Name?” for observations about some of the differences between the pre-print and published versions of the CSG’s paper, which are also highlighted in and Jonathan’s “Virus Origins and Gain(Claim) of Function Research”
Interesting dig into the genesis of the "virus" name. What significance does this have - who named the virus, and when? Thanks.