The SARS-CoV-2 Name Game (Long Read)

Politicized disputes over what to name 2019-nCoV raise critical questions about what and how novel the virus really was - and whether something was suddenly spreading at all

More than four years after reports about a cluster of atypical pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, the origin of “the virus” alleged to be the culprit remains debated and unresolved.

Less mysterious and easier to chronicle is the origin of the virus’s official name: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, a.k.a., SARS-CoV-2. Nothing about the nam…