COVID-19 stands for Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease? Fact Check

Rumours online claim that COVID-19 stands for “Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease“, and the 19 originates from the fact that it is the 19th virus to come from China.

FALSE

The below message is spreading on social media.

Hate to break this to all of the morons who call themselves Journalists. COVID literally stands for “Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease” and the number 19 is due to this being the 19th virus to come out of China.

COVID-19 is the name given to the disease that results from the 2019 novel strain of coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in 2019.

Viruses and their resulting diseases are given different names, and although it is often the disease that is usually more well-known than the virus that caused it (for example, measles is more often cited than the virus that causes it, Measles Morbillivrus) in the case of the coronavirus pandemic, the term 2019 coronavirus (the virus) is more frequently cited in the media than COVID-19 (the disease.)

Despite COVID-19 being slightly less frequently used when compared to the term coronavirus, it is still frequently cited, and this has led to the claim that it actually stands for “Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease”, and that the 19 meant it was the 19th virus to come from China.

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While experts do currently believe the virus and disease originated from China, this is not what it stands for. Neither viruses nor diseases are named after where they originated. In reality, the CO and VI come from the term Coronavirus, the family of viruses of which the 2019 novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 belongs. The D simply stands for Disease, which COVID-19 is. And the 19 derives from 2019, when the virus and disease first spread.

The name was announced by the World Health Organisation on February 11th 2020. The following is from the CDC website.

On February 11, 2020 the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, first identified in Wuhan, China. The name of this disease is coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease

As such, no, COVID-19 does not stand for ” Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease”. This claim is false.