Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

Mu is the Greek letter used to denote the coefficient of friction, commonly (well, to math/physics/engineering students at least) found on diagrams showing blocks sliding down slopes:

Man, I feel stupid now I know it was obvious

I assumed it was a reference to the KLF/JAMS etc. Found my level.

The puns were the only way I could deal with the shear stress of studying engineering

Is it actually written/pronounced mu not miu?

I've always heard it pronounced mew, written mu/μ. Though apparently my is used also (never seen that myself until around 30 seconds ago!)

Ah yeah, I've always heard/said miu/mew and only seen μ. Surely mu sounds more like a short moo?!

Yeah, odd as most of the English words for Greek letters tend to be spelled phonetically. Though I'm more concerned by how we got from delta to nu in such a short period of time! I think someone skipped a few letters!

I think we have skipped more than we think. Omicron is the 15th letter

Are we now discussing whom had a classical education?

The letter's name is spelled μυ (μυ υψιλον), which is pronounced /mee/ in Modern Greek and was probably pronounced something like /my:/ ('y' like a long version of the 'y' in 'dysfunctional') in Ancient Greek, as it is today in German (where it is spelled 'My'). Naturally, in English, it would be pronounced more like /mu:/ or /myu:/.

Traditionally, the letter ypsilon (υ) was transcribed as 'y' (which in German is still called Ypsilon), but more recently has rather been transcribed as 'u'.

You now need to change your username to μυμυcarthy, of course.

Though I'm more concerned by how we got from delta to nu in such a short period of time!

It's complicated:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_diagram_of_Pango_lineages_of_SARS-CoV-2.svg

I reckon they're just trying to make it look like a coronavirus.

Bet they went to omicron only because of the new/nu issue.

Delta was a big mutation, epsilon was much smaller.

I wonder how many countries will have to lockdown 'cos theta.

Something something upsilon something.

It's all a bit Lancia....

This reminds me of a recent, decent movie with aliens and linguists… can’t place it thoz

Arrival

Ah yes thanks.

FT article on the new variant.
https://archive.md/2021.11.27-055046/https://www.ft.com/content/42c5ff3d-e676-4076-9b9f-7243a00cba5e

I can see this ruining all my plans for a family reunion in June... ☹️

Early days yet.. key question will be whether the vaccines continue to prevent serious illness as they have with Delta.

Or to be more exact, whether the vaccines prevent serious illness to a sufficient degree to compensate for the variants greater transmissibility.

SA doctor anecdata is that they are seeing lots more people in their 20s and 30s with moderate and severe disease. This could of course be lifestyle related in a country with very low vaccine uptake.

Even so, I'm shitting it for the NHS. Surely it won't take too much of a transmissibility bump to push admissions up?

I read this morning that the Netherlands met every plane landing from SA and tested them on the spot. 1 in 6 people were Covid positive and made to quarantine.

In the Uk? We let them circulate in the terminal buildings, let them go home on public transport and just asked them to take a day 2 test.

Yeah and you think I want to come back to the UK....

1 in 6???