Covid-19 crisis: Govt use of country-specific variant names betrays 'Indian variant' outrage

In press releases throughout the year, the PIB has repeatedly used country-linked nomenclature for Covid variants

Despite its calls to clamp down on the use of the term “Indian variant” for the highly infectious B.1.617 variant of the Covid-19 virus, first discovered in the country, the Government of India has itself peppered press releases linking variants with the names of other countries of origin.

A review of press releases from earlier this year shows that the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) had repeatedly referred to other “variants of concern” as the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants.

The director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh shared state-wise details of three strains on “the UK Strain, South Africa Variant and Brazil variant in India”, which were quoted as such by the PIB in a March 24 press release and used in the headline.

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Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Balram Bhargava was quoted similarly in a March 30 communication where he said: “The efficacy of both Covaxin and Covishield is effective against UK variant and Brazilian variant. The work against South African variant is ongoing and its results are awaited.” His quote was also picked up for the headline.

The PIB, in a release dated as recently as April 16, stated that “RT-PCR Tests being used in India do not miss UK, Brazil, South Africa and Double Mutant variants” and also went on to enumerate the number of samples that had tested positive for each variant in the country, along with the degree of their mutations.

The government’s displeasure with media houses may rely on naming conventions established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that aim at fending off social stigmatisation and racial targeting, but the public press releases underline its own inconsistencies in adhering to the guidelines before the B.1.617 was widely referred to as the “Indian variant” in domestic and international media.

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The government did not impose precautionary restrictions to contain the Covid-19 threat despite being warned of a new and more contagious variant of the infection by a forum of Indian scientists, Reuters reported last week. The government has garnered criticism from several corners for declaring victory over the pandemic when cases had fallen instead of ensuring it was equipped to deal with a possible second wave.

The WHO, in a recent risk assessment, chalked the massive second wave in the country up to several contributing factors, including fast-spreading new variants and large religious and political mass gatherings, for which the government has come under fire domestically as well.