Talk:Variants of SARS-CoV-2

Historical variant sections need re-factoring

As of the current version of 18:17, 10 July 2024, we have three sections that are useful (especially since there is no point having all the descendants of Omicron listed in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, and nobody seems to be trying to add them there anyway), but don't quite make sense in terms of the overall structure of the article. They should be shifted to be either earlier or later than the three VOC, VOI, and VUM stand-alone sections, or be integrated into a single section:

• Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Overview of historical variants of concern or under monitoring
• Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Variant of concern lineages under monitoring (WHO) - which has a good table
• Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Previously circulating and formerly monitored variants (WHO)

I'm not sure how these should be re-organised, but it seems to me that the main principle should be that we don't want a particular variant to be listed multiple times in detail in these sections - because then people won't know which entry is the main one to read or edit.

My initial proposal is that integrating Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Overview of historical variants of concern or under monitoring and Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Variant of concern lineages under monitoring (WHO) into the three respective sections of Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Previously circulating and formerly monitored variants (WHO) would make the most sense, possibly addding one or two extra subsections e.g. for a table.

This is mainly a problem of lack of media attention to SARS-CoV-2 since 2021-ish: less media attention leads to less Wikipedia editing.

Please give any arguments for or against this proposal, or describe alternative proposals on how to reorganise these sections. Boud (talk) 18:33, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

will look--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 13:45, 11 August 2024 (UTC)

Merge proposal for SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern

With the latest variants not being "variants of concern", and with the transclusion of SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern taking up two-thirds of the lead, which is effectively most of the article, given the rest of the article is outdated or unnecessary,

• I propose merging SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern into Variants of SARS-CoV-2 under a "Definitions" section.⸺(Random)staplers 15:38, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

I also just realized the section "Notability Criteria" is just a copy of "Criteria". That section was copied into SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, so attribution should not be necessary (for that section) if this merge goes through.⸺(Random)staplers 15:50, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Refactoring notes

A rather messy situation, given that these articles are not mainly edited by Wikipedia power-users. I've done a lot of refactoring on these articles, so here are my notes. In short, with the help of {{excerpt}}:

• Where a variant is notable enough to have a substantial Wikipedia article, it will not be transcluded.
• Where a variant is not notable enough to have a Wikipedia article substantially different from the section in Variants of SARS-CoV-2, it will be transcluded.
• Every variant will link to Variants of SARS-CoV-2 via {{main}}.
• No new articles on specific SARS-CoV-2 variants will be made, given the lack of notability, unless someone wants to create SARS-CoV-2 variants by year to condense all the inevitable new variants that will arise, which, as of 10 September 2024, is currently in Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Sublineages by year.

This just leaves Omicron, which is rather unusual in that it is still, as of 10 September 2024, the current "Variant of Concern". Since most people seem to be focusing on updating Variants of SARS-CoV-2 with new VOIs or VUMs, rather than SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, I've decided to transclude Variants of SARS-CoV-2's content into SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

Then there's the section on vaccines. Currently, SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has more info on vaccines, so it has been transcluded to Variants of SARS-CoV-2. However, COVID-19 vaccine should be where that info goes. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be well updated, and has had sections transcluded from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, which appears to be better updated with vaccine info.

So that's the situation right now. I don't know if the casual editors realize how much of this is a mess, but I hope this can serve as a guide as to where you need to edit:

• Probably variants of SARS-CoV-2#Sublineages by year for 2025 and beyond, or COVID-19 vaccine, which needs a lot of work.⸺(Random)staplers 21:22, 10 September 2024 (UTC)