"We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease," the WHO chief said.
我們要取的名字不能指向某個(gè)地理位置、某個(gè)動(dòng)物、某個(gè)人或群體，同時(shí)這個(gè)名字要易讀，且與該疾病相關(guān)。

"Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing. It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks."
正式命名可以阻止其他不準(zhǔn)確或者污名化名稱的使用，同時(shí)，也讓我們?cè)诮窈蟮墓跔畈《疽咔槊麜r(shí)有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)可循。

新型冠狀病毒名稱為SARS-CoV-2

The virus itself has been designated SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
新型冠狀病毒的名稱則由國(guó)際病毒分類委員會(huì)指定為SARS-CoV-2。

冠狀病毒（coronavirus）是一個(gè)病毒大家族，其中包括引起普通感冒的病毒，以及曾經(jīng)造成重大疫情的：

? 嚴(yán)重急性呼吸綜合征（Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome，SARS）冠狀病毒；

? 中東呼吸綜合征（Middle East Respiratory Syndrome，MERS）冠狀病毒。

此前，世界衛(wèi)生組織建議使用的臨時(shí)名稱，英文叫“2019-nCoV”。2019指代病毒被發(fā)現(xiàn)的年份，后面的nCoV是“新型冠狀病毒”英文翻譯new/novel coronavirus的縮寫(xiě)。

為什么給病毒起名講究這么多？

美國(guó)約翰斯·霍普金斯健康安全中心高級(jí)學(xué)者、助理教授克麗絲特爾·沃森（Crystal Watson, senior scholar and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security）表示雖然當(dāng)下焦點(diǎn)都放在了公共衛(wèi)生應(yīng)對(duì)上，不過(guò)病毒命名工作也值得優(yōu)先處理。

"The naming of a new virus is often quite delayed and the focus until now has been on the public health response, which is understandable."
“給新病毒的命名通常都會(huì)滯后許多，而且到目前為止，焦點(diǎn)都放在公共衛(wèi)生應(yīng)對(duì)上，這是可以理解的?！?/span>

"But there are reasons the naming should be a priority."
“但是，病毒命名工作應(yīng)該優(yōu)先處理，是有原因的?！?/span>

她給出了幾點(diǎn)原因：

? "The name it has now is not easy to use and the media and the public are using other names for the virus," says Dr Watson.
“目前的病毒名稱用起來(lái)并不方便，而媒體和公眾都在使用病毒的別名。”

? "The danger when you don't have an official name is that people start using terms like China Virus, and that can create a backlash against certain populations."
“沒(méi)有正式名稱的危險(xiǎn)在于，人們開(kāi)始使用諸如‘中國(guó)病毒’等表述，這會(huì)導(dǎo)致人們對(duì)部分特定人群產(chǎn)生強(qiáng)烈抵制?！?/span>

? With social media, unofficial names take hold quickly and are hard to take back, she says.
她說(shuō)，非官方的名稱很容易在社交媒體上迅速流行起來(lái)，這很難撤回。

其實(shí)，給病毒起名不慎，早已有前車之鑒。

The H1N1 virus in 2009 was dubbed "swine flu". This led Egypt to slaughter all of its pigs, even though it was spread by people, not pigs.
2009年的甲型H1N1流感病毒曾另被稱作“豬流感”，結(jié)果導(dǎo)致埃及屠宰了境內(nèi)全部的豬。但其實(shí)這種流感病毒是由人傳播，而不是豬傳播。

正式名稱不合適也可能引發(fā)各種潛在問(wèn)題。

世界衛(wèi)生組織就曾在2015年批評(píng)過(guò)“中東呼吸綜合征” （MERS：Middle East Respiratory Syndrome）這一名稱。

命名中含有地區(qū)信息，這就可能招致不必要的地域歧視。畢竟病毒只是在這一地區(qū)偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)的，沒(méi)人能夠證明世界上其他地方就不存在該病毒。

世衛(wèi)組織在一篇聲明中說(shuō)道：

"We've seen certain disease names provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities, create unjustified barriers to travel, commerce and trade, and trigger needless slaughtering of food animals."
“我們注意到某些疾病的名稱煽動(dòng)起了對(duì)特定宗教或是族裔成員的抵制，對(duì)旅行、商業(yè)和貿(mào)易造成不正當(dāng)?shù)恼系K，并且引發(fā)了對(duì)食用動(dòng)物不必要的屠殺?！?/span>

2015年，世衛(wèi)組織發(fā)布了命名新型人類傳染病的指導(dǎo)原則，要求名稱中不能包含以下信息：