There’s Something New Under the Sun

It’s called the Novel Coronavirus and by novel they mean it’s a “new pathogen of a previously known type”. By “they” I mean the World Health Organization who approves the manner of naming. No longer are viruses named after a location or person or species – according to Wikipedia. No more Chinese Virus or Kung Fu Flu or Wu Flu. With the MERS virus outbreak there was talk of the Camel Flu. And leave it up to Gen Z to come up with a whole bunch of new words related to COVID-19. Rona – from a song before their time – “my, my, my Sha – Rona…” and when you don’t know much about the virus you’re a covidiot and if you can’t go to a bar because your partner or you tested positive then you mix your own quarantini and when you get acne because you’ve had to wear and sweat into your mask all day you get maskne. Don’t you love new clever words? Then there’s our newest “variant of concern” and here we’re using the ancient Greek alphabet to name all the variations of COVID-19. We also have “variants of interest” but these phrases are becoming less new as we hear more about them on the news.