UPDATE: July 8, 2024 Email to the WHO Regarding Its Statement About the Naming of SARS-CoV-2

Last week, I wrote about a claim on the WHO website regarding when and by whom the virus initially called 2019-nCoV was (re)named SARS-CoV-2.

Did the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy (ICTV) Announce the Name SARS-CoV-2 on February 11, 2020, as Claimed by the WHO?

A WHO spokesperson responded to my inquiry. Amid further correspondence with that individual, the ICTV data secretary, and a ICTV Coronavirus Study Group member, I found additional documentation and re-read records I’d already obtained.

This morning, I sent another email to the WHO spokesperson that shows why I believe the statement on this page (highlighted in image below) needs to be revised, for the sake of historical accuracy, if nothing else.

To keep the focus off of specific WHO media personnel, I’ve removed the names and email address of staff that received my message.

From: Jessica Hockett Subject: Re: [EXT] Correction/clarification needed reading WHO assertion about ICTV announcement on Feb 11, 2020 Date: July 8, 2024
To: [Redacted]
Cc: [Redacted]

Good day [redacted].

I’m circling back to this after having found & reviewed additional documentation and exchanged emails with a member of the ICTV-CSG group.

Permit me to review the timeline, as I understand it:

1) The ICTV-CSG was tasked with confirming the species of the virus and with naming it. From January 23-24, 2020, CSG discussed and reached consensus about the name via email. (I can forward those emails for your reference, if you’d like.)  The emails indicate that people at WHO were made aware of the CSG’s choice of SARS-CoV-2 on Jan 24,  2020. 

3) On January 30, 2020, WHO recommended the interim names “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”and ‘2019-nCoV’ for “the disease causing the current outbreak” and “the virus,” respectively. (WHO had been using 2019-nCoV since January 10, 2020 or so.)  WHO also said in the Jan 30 SitRep, “The final decision on the official name of the virus will be made by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.” (Note: The statement about ICTV was not accurate, since it was the CSG of the ICTV that had convened and reached consensus about a name.)

4) On February 5, 2020, CSG submitted a draft of its paper to Nature. On February 7, 2020, Dr. Gorbelenya uploaded the manuscript on bioRxiv on behalf of the CSG. 

5) bioRxiv made the pre-print public on February 11, 2020.

6) By February 12, 2020 (possibly on February 11, 2020), ICTV updated a news page to say that the virus had been named in the CSG’s pre-print. Emails sent to/from CSG members on Feb 13-15, 2020 show that some Chinese scientists opposed the name SARS-CoV-2. 

7) Nature accepted the manuscript on February 19, 2020 and published it on March 2, 2020. There are substantive differences between the pre-print and published paper.¹ In addition to the feedback/reactions the CSG received from the Chinese virologists, Stuart Siddell, Ron Fouchier, and Jens Kuhn commented on the manuscript prior to publication.

Given the above sequence of events, I believe a change to the statement, ICTV announced "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” as the new name of the virus on 11 February 2020,² on this WHO page is warranted.

—The ICTV organization did not make an announcement about the virus name, or do so in such a way to convey that it had named the virus. It published an update on the CSG’s work - specifically, the release of their pre-print which reflected their choice of the name SARS-CoV-2.

—The CSG’s manuscript which was publicly released on February 11, 2020, had not been subjected to peer review. Although the name SARS-CoV-2 was retained in the published paper, peer review could have just as easily resulted in a different name. 

—As far as I can tell, the WHO made no announcement about the CSG’s pre-print or name choice on February 11, 2020. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

In the interest of accurately preserving & conveying that which is reflected in the historical record, I respectfully request that the WHO revise its statement about the timing and/or group responsible for naming the virus. 

Thank you kindly,

Jessica Hockett

I plan to share the emails I mentioned above later this week, as well as a more complete timeline on the naming/re-naming of SARS-CoV-2 that I’ve been working on since April 22 of this year.

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UPDATES: July 23 & 25, 2024

The article with the emails can be found here:

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

Revised and expanded timeline here:

Timeline: The Naming of SARS-CoV-2

1. Not cited in email, but see discussion of the differences here and here.

2. CORRECTION: I accidentally transposed words: The statement on the WHO page says “name of the new virus” - not “new name of the virus”.