Repurposing the robin or quail as catchy labels for ungainly mutants would be less confusing for the public, an epidemiologist based in Switzerland had mused. That would appease politicians in member states like South Africa and India who were unhappy with the way ordinary people named new virus strains after the country where they were first discovered: “the South African variant,” “the Indian variant.” Feathers were ruffled. “It is almost inevitable that some will mistakenly think the birds carry or are responsible for Covid, putting robins and pelicans at risk the world over,” one commenter on a research paper protested. “If the ‘Robin’ variant takes off, you will be impacting my daughter and every other person named Robin,” complained another.