![]() tests positive for the coronavirus after traveling to China, health experts have a good idea of how they got sick. In late February, the CDC announced that there might have been an instance of community spread in the United States, meaning the “spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown.” How the novel coronavirus is passed from one person to another remains of central concern for health officials, as is tracking the way it moves. Kelly also says has seen spikes in lookups for words as simple as spread. spread / community spread / communicable / contagion The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is operating under the assumption that COVID-19 has a two to 14-day incubation period, based on what officials have seen with other coronaviruses. ![]() This is related to a virus’ incubation period, the length of time between when an infection begins and when there are apparent signs of the disease. One of the big questions health officials have been racing to answer is whether, and how long, someone might have the novel coronavirus while being asymptomatic: not showing signs that they have the disease. Symptomatic cases of COVID-19 include things like fever, cough and shortness of breath. But senior research editor John Kelly says people are also looking up more familiar fare: words like symptom, a sign or indication that someone has a disease. ![]() Many of the words that are seeing the biggest spikes on are exotic ones like coronavirus. Symptom / symptomatic / asymptomatic / incubation That French term, which came into use following the flu pandemic of 1918, describes roping off a whole community, which might contain sick and healthy people, and preventing anyone from leaving in order to curb the spread of a disease. When the Chinese government effectively cut off some 50 million people in Wuhan, the location of the first outbreak, that was most aptly described as a cordon sanitaire. To self-quarantine suggests that one is voluntarily confining themself by, say, staying at home, versus being legally confined to a military base by the U.S. (When someone is determined to be sick and is kept apart from others, that is known as isolation.) The word typically describes the confinement of people who appear healthy but could have the disease. If one is in quarantine, that’s good news in a way. It’s from this use that we eventually got the term that’s all over the news today. ![]() In the Middle Ages, Italians adopted that word to describe a 40-day period that boats had to wait before docking, to ensure the passengers weren’t sick with the plague before they were allowed to join the population on land. It was also used in legal contexts, like describing the period of time that a widow could remain in her deceased husband’s home before she started owing somebody rent. The word’s earliest known uses were in religious contexts, like describing a 40-day period of fasting that emulated the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert. The word quarantine, explains Merriam-Webster Editor-at-Large Peter Sokolowski, originally referred to a period of 40 days. Quarantine / self-quarantine / isolation / cordon sanitaire The pan in pandemic is the same one in pandemonium, a description of uproar that originally referred to the place where all demons dwelled and Pangea, the vast supercontinent, comprising all the land on Earth, that is thought to have once existed. The prefix pan- suggests the whole of the universe or mankind. Such a decision can hinge on many factors, like whether the disease is spreading in additional places only because travelers had been to the site of the initial outbreak, as well as concerns about terminology causing markets and hopes to sink. On March 11, the World Health Organization officially declared that a pandemic was underway, noting “alarming levels of spread and severity.” The WHO had resisted using that word even as outbreaks were reported in scores of countries. When does something officially become “worldwide”? There’s no absolute answer. A pandemic is an epidemic that has become a worldwide phenomenon. When there are enough outbreaks, in places beyond that initial spot, that amounts to an epidemic. Per Merriam-Webster, an outbreak is “a sudden rise in the incidence of a disease,” which is usually confined to one area or group of people. Keep up to date with our daily coronavirus newsletter by clicking here.
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