再见，B.1.1.7、B.1.351 和 P.1。
Hello Alpha, Beta and Gamma.
你好，阿尔法、贝塔和伽马。
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced May 31 that it has given new names to the several versions, or variants, of new coronavirus spreading around the world. Based on Greek letters, the names are simple and easy to remember.
世卫组织5月31日宣布，其已为在世界范围内传播的新冠病毒的多个变种赋予了新的名称。这些以希腊字母为基础的名称简单易记。
The international health agency recognized that the scientific names can be difficult to say. It said, "As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory."
世卫组织认识到这些变种的学名很难念。该机构表示：“因此，人们通常以检出地点来称呼这些变种，这是污名化和歧视性的。”
As early as 2015, the WHO had advised scientists, officials and the media to avoid naming new infectious diseases after people, animals and places. It said to avoid names like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, or Legionnaires Disease, which have since become part of medical history. Instead, the WHO said, names should be descriptive terms based on general symptoms, or signs of sickness, caused by the disease.
早在2015年，世卫组织就曾建议科学家、官员和媒体避免以人、动物或地点来命名新的传染病。它说要避免像中东呼吸综合征、西班牙流感或军团病这种已经成为医学史一部分的名称。相反，世卫组织表示，名称应该是基于这种疾病引起的一般症状的描述性术语。
Dr. Keiji Fukuda was WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Security at the time. He said, "This may seem like a trivial issue to some, but disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected." He noted that disease names of the past have caused damage to economies, trade, and members of religious or ethnic communities.
福田敬二博士目前是世卫组织负责卫生安全的助理总干事。他说：“对于某些人来说，这似乎是微不足道的问题，但是疾病名称对于受到直接影响的人群来说确实很重要。”他指出，过去的疾病名称对经济、贸易以及宗教或种族社区的成员造成了伤害。
Last month, Agence-France Presse reported that the Indian government ordered the country's social media to remove all writings that referred to the "Indian variant." The government said the term could suggest India was to blame for the disease.
上个月，法新社报道称，印度政府下令该国社交媒体删除所有提到印度变体的文章。政府表示，这个词可能暗示印度应该对这种疾病负责。
The WHO says it will continue to use the scientific name SARS-CoV-2 to describe the coronavirus that was first identified in Wuhan. The disease it causes is still called coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. And scientists will continue to use the difficult-to-remember names of the variants in their research.
世卫组织表示，将继续使用学名SARS-CoV-2来描述最早在武汉发现的新冠病毒(注：最早发现并非指病毒源头)。它引发的疾病仍被成为coronavirus disease 2019或是COVID-19。科学家们还将继续在他们的研究中使用那些难以记住的变体名称。
For the public, the variant first identified in Britain will now be called Alpha. The one first identified in South Africa will be known as Beta; the one in Brazil as Gamma; and the one in India as Delta.
对于公众来说，最早在英国发现的变种现在被称为阿尔法。最早在南非发现的变种被称为贝塔。最早在巴西发现的变种被称为伽马，而最早在印度发现的变种被称为德尔塔。
As new variants of concern and of interest are identified, the WHO said it will work with experts to name them after Greek letters.
世卫组织表示，随着新发现“须关切变种”和“待观察变种”，它将与专家合作以希腊字母对其命名。
I'm Caty Weaver.
我是凯蒂·韦孚。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，请勿转载，违者必究！)