https://twitter.com/AstraZeneca/status/1184743596819390464
Astra AB was founded in 1913 in Södertälje, Sweden.'Astra' has its roots in the Greek astron, meaning 'a star'. Zeneca was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) into a separate company.
"Zeneca" is an invented name, created by an agency instructed to find a name which began with a letter from either the top or bottom of the alphabet and was phonetically memorable, of no more than three syllables and did not have an offensive meaning in any language.
The merger in 1999 between Swedish pharmaceutical company, Astra AB, and UK-based Zeneca Group plc, was one of the largest-ever European mergers at the time."
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I have always understood Astra in their company name to mean "Star." (College Greek.) I accept their explanation.
(The Kansas State motto is Ad Astra Per Aspera. (Persevere) Through difficulty to the Stars.)
Not really intending to take the vaccination whatever the source.
True, Hinduism was “foreign” or looked down upon by Europe back when most of the European conglomerates like AstraZeneca were established. It was an e-mail forwarded to me and at the least was worth posting for discussion/clarification since this is apparently going around the internet. The e-mail to me was entitled ‘Fact or Fiction?’ so despite all the nefarious activity going on related to the Covid shots it is a stretch to input Hinduism into the meaning of AstraZeneca’s name. Plus your point is excellent in that many corporate names today are the result of mergers so to input meaning in a “modern” named org. is a stretch.
I don’t plan to take the shot either.