Socioterminology of coronavirus COVID-19 (Part 1)

We live complicated and challenging times. Since the beginning of this year, mind-blowing things have happened: the USA – Iran conflict, the accidentally shot down Ukrainian airliner by Iran which took the lives of 176 people, the Australian fires, Brexit, climate change battles, failed OPEC agreement, refugee crisis, … and now the COVID-19 pandemic, which dynamics is scary and unpredictable.

It is true that the topic of COVID-19 pandemic is No 1 worldwide, and because of that, new socioterminology appears every day. Socioterminology is a linguistic term which refers to the terminology used by society in certain pragmatic, social, and historical contexts. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of those contexts. I must confess that the narrative on the new pandemic is so dynamic that I can’t keep the track, because it develops very fast. However, I managed to compile a list of terms with their definitions, that will be published in two parts.

Below you can have a look on my first batch of terms:

Avi Schiffman – is a 17 years old young man from Seattle, who launched in late December, a website that is keeping the world updated on the COVID-19 pandemic as it spreads. The website https://ncov2019.live/, has been visited by 12 million people since launched in late December, and provides real time data about the number of coronavirus cases in the world, including recovered, infected, deceased, etc. 

coronavirus (COVID-19) - is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans. Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) (Source: WHO). COVID-19 is a pneumonia-like infection with symptoms ranging from mild to severe and manifesting as respiratory illness, fever, cough and difficulty breathing.

coronavirus baby boom – it’s a social media "theory", that as an effect of self-isolation due to the coronavirus, many people across the world stay at home and this will lead to a baby boom starting with the end of 2020. The name given to those born in this predicted baby boom is “Coronials”. There is no real scientific evidence in this regard.

Coronavirus Bill/coronacrisis bill – the term appeared on 18.03.2020, in the UK, following the intentions of the Government to lockdown London and prepare an emergency legislation – Coronavirus Bill – to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Legislation in the Coronavirus Bill would give the Government emergency powers to "close premises" and "restrict or prohibit events and gatherings", including restricting transport networks. (Source: The Telegraph)

CoronaCoin – is a bitcoin-like cryptocurrency that bets on coronavirus deaths. Some Europe-based developers have created a cryptocurrency - named CoronaCoin - that lets you cash in on the number of people who die or fall ill due to coronavirus. In a rather tasteless methodology, this Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency functions on coins, called tokens, that decrease as more people die or get infected. The scarcity of tokens lead to gain in the value of the digital currency. As per its developers, its total supply is based on the world population - around 7,604,953,650 (over 7 billion). (source: businesstoday)

coronavirus concern – refers to concerns of political, economic, social, health, security character, of governments and individuals, caused by the spread of COVID-19.

coronavirus cyberattacks – a term that refers to online attacks linked to COVID-19, that target public authorities and healthcare institutions amid the pandemic.

coronavirus cybersecurity – refers to cybersecurity measures that governments should urgently take amid this pandemic, to prevent any cyberattacks and protect healthcare institutions, as well as people who work from home. I don’t see any steps made in this regard… 

coronavirus discrimination – discrimination prompted by the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, which appeared in China. It specifically targets Chinese people and people of East Asian origin. The phenomenon refers to bullying and assaults against people of Asian origin, racism and xenophobia. 

coronavirus fear – fear of getting infected with the virus.

coronavirus-hit Iran – I decided to include this "term" in this glossary, because at the moment Iran is ranked 4th in the world after Italy, China and Spain, according to the number of deaths caused by COVID-19. I believe the situation would have been better if Iran had access to humanitarian aid, which is stopped at the moment because of the sanctions. There are leaders in the world who asked for the sanctions to be halted, but there is still no action in this regard… 

coronavirus lockdown/ coronavirus shutdown - a security measure taken by many countries around the world, due to the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, to prevent people from getting sick. The imposed lockdown has different forms: city/country lockdown, full/partial lockdown, closure of land and air borders, interdiction of movement for people, restricting civilian travel, barred cars, closure of pubs, shops, markets, entertainment centers, etc. The first coronavirus lockdown was imposed on 23 January 2020 in Wuhan city, home to 11 million people, where COVID-19 is thought to have originated. The second was Italy on 21 February 2020, which shut down the northern region, that was most severely affected by the virus. Two days later Italy extended the lockdown over the entire country. One of the measures taken by Israel, resulting from the lockdown, refers to the right of the country’s internal security agency to tap into its citizens’ phones and track their movements as a method of combating the spread of coronavirus.

coronavirus panic – panic caused by the rapidly escalating coronavirus pandemic.

coronavirus panic-buying/panic-shopping – a term that refers to excessive buying caused by the fast spreading of the coronavirus COVID-19. The most popular goods are pasta, toilet paper and hand-sanitizers. Because of the panic, to avoid crowds and product hoarding, some markets started to prepare pre-filled shopping carts or to ration certain items.

Chinese virus/Kung-flu/American virus/Wuhan pandemic – terms used in the narrative between USA and China, blaming each other for spreading the virus.

COVID-19 pandemic – a pandemic officially declared by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. The WHO Director-General said that “We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.”

COVID-19 patient – a patient infected with the coronavirus COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccine – for the moment (22.03.2020), there is no COVID-19 vaccine. However, many countries around the world embarked on clinical trials and developing the vaccine.  

covidiot – a recently created neologism, that refers to a person who stubbornly ignores social distancing protocol, thus helping to further spread COVID-19. The word covidiot also describes a person who hoards groceries needlessly spreading COVID-19 fears and depriving others of vital supplies. (Source of definition: unknown)

domestic/local coronavirus case – a term that refers to people infected with COVID-19 inside the country.

"elderly hour" – a term used in Australia to refer to the elderly and disabled (since they are the most vulnerable in front of the coronavirus), which are let in early to supermarkets to ensure they can buy essentials.

elbow bump – has gained in popularity since the coronavirus began to spread, as a way to express a greeting without handshaking or exchanging germs.

Facebook quarantine/Twitter quarantine/Instagram quarantine, etc. – is a pejorative term and a concept that may have more approaches. First, it may refer to the lobby run on Facebook by people, groups, organizations, NGOs, influencers, politicians, actors, doctors, etc., to convince people to stay home, to self-isolate, to go into quarantine, to stay away from public places, to avoid any contacts, etc. Secondly, it may describe the situation when on one hand somebody is advocating on Facebook for quarantine, and on the other hand – allows public gatherings, movement of people, etc. An example is Moldova, where the Government uses social platforms to urge people to stay home and threatens to apply fines for violating the emergency regime, and on the hand, allows the orthodox churches to organize daily masses.

fast-spreading infection – a term used to refer to COVID-19, which spreads very quickly. An assessment conducted by the WHO concludes that one affected person has the potential to infect between two to three people which otherwise can be avoided if people practice physical distancing. (Source: WHO)

"foreign virus" – a term largely used by Donald Trump to refer to COVID-19, mostly alluding to China and Europe as the source of the virus.

hand sanitizer - is a solution generally used to decrease infectious agents on the hands. In times of pandemic, hand sanitizers became a strategic product as food. 

herd immunity – a concept and approach currently popular in the UK and The Netherlands, to combat the coronavirus pandemic. According to this mechanism of combating infectious diseases, authorities should let the deadly coronavirus spread so a large proportion of the community is immune to the virus. According to the specialists (Raina MacIntyre, head of the biosecurity program at the UNSW's Kirby Institute), to achieve herd immunity - meaning enough people become immune to a virus through exposure that its spread is thwarted - requires between 55 and 60 per cent of a population to be infected. These days, both countries declared national lockdowns and more measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

human hand-sanitizer (hand-sanitizer dispenser) – refers to the inhumane gesture of Saudi Arabian Oil Company "Aramco", which dressed a man up as a human hand sanitizer amid the coronavirus crisis. The company later tweeted an apology.

Italy-style coronavirus lockdown – lockdown declared by Italian authorities starting with 21 February 2020, which covered eleven municipalities of the province of Lodi in Lombardy, and affected around 50,000 people. The lockdown meant: ban of non-essential travel; limitation of free movement, except in cases of necessity; ban of public events; closure of commercial and retail businesses, except essential goods sellers and banks; suspension of teaching in schools and universities; under-surveillance quarantine of infected persons; shutdown of all non-essential businesses and industries (from 23 March). According to Wikipedia, the lockdown measures imposed by the Italian government, despite being widely approved by the public opinion, were also described as the largest suppression of constitutional rights in the history of the republic.

novel coronavirus – a term interchangeably used to refer to COVID-19.

pandemic  – is a term that refers to the global outbreak of a disease (please, don’t use "global pandemic" or "international pandemic", because it’s pleonastic!).

Public Health Emergency of International Concern – the term used by WHO to call the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19, on 30 January 2020. On 11 March 2020, the narrative changed into pandemic.

quarantine - compulsory separation, including restriction of movement, of people who potentially have been exposed to a contagious disease, until it can be determined whether they have become sick or no longer pose a risk to others. This determination could be made, for example, based on the time elapsed from their potential exposure. (Source: NCSL)

14-day quarantine – a WHO-established quarantine period, estimated by researchers as optimal for effectively controlling the coronavirus COVID-19.

"red zone" quarantine – refers to the quarantine imposed on 21 February 2020 in Italy, over 11 municipalities of the province of Lodi in Lombardy which affected around 50,000 people. The region was declared a "red zone" due to the large number of infected patients in the region. It was the first lockdown in Italy.

service journalism – is a phrase used to described a form of journalism that involves offering consumer-oriented advice and features. The term was created by Clay Felker in 1968. (Source: Open School of Journalism) In times of COVID-19 pandemic, the term covers the news websites, journalists, mass media outlets, that got engaged in information campaigns about the coronavirus for the public.

social distancing – a term that became viral at the beginning of 2020, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept refers to the idea of avoiding people, crowds, or any other public places to prevent the spread of the virus. As of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) is discouraging the use of the phrase "social distancing". The organization urges people to use the phrase "physical distancing" instead. 

social distancing vs. physical distancing – the World Health Organization is using physical distancing instead of social distancing to describe the need to maintain space between people to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

#StayHome – a campaign launched by governments, officials, artists, medical staff, and everybody who is aware about the danger of the pandemic, which urges people to stay home in order to stop the spreading of the coronavirus.