'Omicron No Crimbo:' New COVID-19 Variant Conspiracy Leads To 'Christmas Hoax' Claim

As the new COVID-19 variant Omicron continues to spread, conspiracy theorists have gone into overdrive, inexplicably alleging that the variant's name has a hidden message after discovering a not-so-festive anagram.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Omicron as a "variant of concern" since it is now the most transmissible form.

Conspiracy theorists have discovered the anagram "No Crimbo" in the variant name (since it is British slang for Christmas) just in time for the holiday season.

However, for this anagram to work, the complete name of the variant had to be used: Omicron (B.1.1.5.29) - to fit the all-important "B" in to spell out "Crimbo."

Naturally, they've deduced that this is a clear sign stating that there would be no Christmas this year.

Perhaps WHO has a malicious anagram department that examines each Greek letter of the alphabet for possible subliminal messages it might send out via the jumbled letters. People use the name Crimbo on purpose.

Many people pointed out the absurdity of utilizing word puzzles to reach to such conclusions as people discussed the conspiracy on Twitter.

The problem is that the variant isn't called Omicron B, and they've combined two names for the same thing in an attempt to come up with a catchy label for their bizarre notion.

Another clever anagram discovered by conspiracy theorists was "moronic," which means "foolish or ignorant." In contrast, others pointed out another hilarious anagram they missed: "micro nob."

WHO began naming variants to avoid public confusion. There are presently seven different types of 'variants of interest' and 'variants of concern,' each with its own Greek letter.

Omicron was given its name from the Greek alphabet, an online tabloid mentioned. They explained why the letters Nu and Xi were passed when naming the new variant.

The health agency told Reuters that 'Nu' is too readily confused with 'new.' They skipped 'Xi' since it is a common last name and shares the name with the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"WHO best practices for naming disease suggest avoiding 'causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups," they added.

Though anagram theories weren't the only topic of discussion for the Omicron version, many people were unsure how to pronounce the Greek letter.