Yes, of course the goal is to erase the "obvious link" between the virus and the its origin. The thing is, people are irrational and will start discriminating in weird and unnecessary ways based on where a virus came from.
Nobody is trying to erase "history" or anything. Anybody actually interested can always read about the origin location of the virus in Wikipedia. This is all about keeping things straightforward for the otherwise uninformed.
Note that this is a standard virus naming methodology. The Ebola virus was similarly intentionally named to avoid unintentionally creating a target for discrimination.
See https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/20/coronavirus...
Nobody is trying to erase "history" or anything. Anybody actually interested can always read about the origin location of the virus in Wikipedia. This is all about keeping things straightforward for the otherwise uninformed.
Note that this is a standard virus naming methodology. The Ebola virus was similarly intentionally named to avoid unintentionally creating a target for discrimination.