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What do you call the virus?


happi duck
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I use covid, the virus, and the rona pretty interchangeably. The rona is almost universal among young people here, and not related to how seriously they take it. 

When I had an exposure, I said that I was going to call it "the vid" if I had it. I feel like having it gives me the right to nickname it, but my kids are giving it a hard no, they said it's like giving yourself a cool nickname, not allowed 😄

Edited by katilac
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7 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

 

 and I associate "the rona" with far-right eye-rolling contempt of masks and other public health measures

 

5 hours ago, Spryte said:

 

Until now, I’ve only read “the Rona” online, from people who consume right-leaning media, and who consistently downplay Covid.  I’d imagined that “the Rona” was coined by some particular right wing figure, maybe a host on a show, but didn’t give it much more thought than that.  

While no one I know says the rona (or at least I haven't heard them saying it) I had no idea it was connected with right wing talk or covid deniers. I just though it was a bit of dark humor. I'm not offended by dark humor or making light of a serious situation when laughter is needed. There's an entire huge thread here about Covid-19 memes that imo has helped a bunch of us get through these months. Until now I placed 'the rona" on the dark humor side, though I don't really find it funny. It sounds to me like an attempt at being cool that fell flat. It sounds like an attempt at a Bill and Ted phrase that's terribly outdated - "Hey dude, he has the rona" "Man, that's odious."

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I usually say COVID. If I’m lazy I don’t capitalize. Sometimes I say Corona or Coronavirus or just “the virus.” I do say “the Covid” in some contexts; in fact, I said this today when telling my boss my niece has “the COVID.” I don’t often say ‘Rona. 

I would never, ever call it “The China Virus” and I absolutely despise that term. I also prefer not to say “The Spanish Flu” when referring to the 1918 flu pandemic, because it is incorrect and IMO, should be discontinued just like certain racist sports team names. It’s simple enough to say, “The 1918 Flu.” All educated or well-read people will have no doubt what you mean. 

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Just now, Kinsa said:

I'm curious, if those who find "the rona" offensive as a shortened version of "coronavirus" also consider "the flu" offensive as a shortened version of "influenza"? Or are these not comparable?  I'm really surprised that people find "the rona" offensive.  I had no idea that was a thing.  🤷‍♀️

It just sounds kinda snarky. And no, I don't think "the flu" has the same connotations. 

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3 minutes ago, Kinsa said:

I'm curious, if those who find "the rona" offensive as a shortened version of "coronavirus" also consider "the flu" offensive as a shortened version of "influenza"? Or are these not comparable?  I'm really surprised that people find "the rona" offensive.  I had no idea that was a thing.  🤷‍♀️

If I had only heard "the flu" said in a snarky dismissive manner while most people said "influenza" then yes it would bother me.

Like I said before, reading here that people said "the rona" without being dismissive helps it not grate on me.

It's the attitude not the words.

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I do find it a bit odd that so many people just call it "the virus."  Are they afraid to say the name?

Personally I call it Covid with most people.  I sometimes call it "the rona" with friends and family.  In context it is "stay away from the rona" or
"that rona b!+ch ruined ___ for us."  I'm not downplaying it.  It is not new or strange to have silly names for infectious diseases.

(FTR I started calling it "the rona" before I heard anyone of any political stripe saying that.  It's just a kind of thing my family/culture does to long words.)

Edited by SKL
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1 minute ago, Not_a_Number said:

Nah, it's just specific enough 🤣. What other virus could we be talking about, if we are saying things like "when the virus is under control"? 

There are so many viruses a person could have though.  It's almost like people think Covid has made every other virus invisible, which doesn't feel right to me.  Of course it also bugs me that every time anyone says __ is sick or __ died, the first thought is "was it Covid," even though 95% of 2020 deaths (and who knows what % of illnesses) in my state were from causes other than Covid.  My family has lost half a dozen people this year, none of them to Covid.  Bad enough they couldn't have funerals.  I dunno, it's hard to articulate why this bugs me, but it does.

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33 minutes ago, Quill said:

I usually say COVID. If I’m lazy I don’t capitalize. 

I would never, ever call it “The China Virus” and I absolutely despise that term. I also prefer not to say “The Spanish Flu” when referring to the 1918 flu pandemic, because it is incorrect and IMO, should be discontinued just like certain racist sports team names. It’s simple enough to say, “The 1918 Flu.” All educated or well-read people will have no doubt what you mean. 

I say covid and when I type it I usually just capitalize the first letter. My phone always wants me to say Covid-19 anytime I try to just type Covid. 

I would never call it the China virus even as a joke. Fortunately no one in my actual social circle would either. 

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1 minute ago, SKL said:

Of course it also bugs me that every time anyone says __ is sick or __ died, the first thought is "was it Covid," even though 95% of 2020 deaths (and who knows what % of illnesses) in my state were from causes other than Covid.

That's nice for your state. It's emphatically false for mine. 

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2 hours ago, kand said:

This thread is helping me to see not everyone who says Rona says it in the flip, eye rolling way I have only heard it in. (It still has a Bill and Ted type sound to me like Lady Florida said, though. Bill and Ted isn’t quite right, but I still can’t put my finger on what it reminds me of.)

Bill and Ted was the closest I could think of but I know what you mean. It's not quite that  but I don't know what it is.

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2 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I also have to say that sometimes when I am in a mood, I call it “this F-ing💩

Sweetie, you get to call it whatever the f$ck you want.

Sometimes I teasingly call DH "The Amazing Cancer Boy " ....

I usually say Covid or Corona. I work in a museum with mostly retired and older men as hosts - I've heard all the names in their frustration.... they (and my 19 year old) often use the plague or the Rona. We've had museum guests call it all the things - China virus, wuhan... as long as they wear their mask and pay their admission I try to be nice about it.... and blame everything on the health department (we have to ask you to wear your mask, or the health department will shut us down... the heath department only allows x..the self guided tour helps to socially distance which helps us to meet our health guidelines.)

Edited by theelfqueen
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17 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

That's nice for your state. It's emphatically false for mine. 

Even in New York, the majority of 2020 deaths have not been from Covid.  Roughly it's about 35,000 Covid deaths compared to annual non-Covid deaths (latest I have is 2017) of over 150,000 deaths.  I dunno, I feel it's kind of disrespectful to act like those non-Covid deaths [and illnesses] didn't happen. 

A 29yo in-law died a couple months ago.  They tried to put Covid on his death certificate, even though he tested negative and there was no reason to believe he had Covid (unless you think death = covid).  His mom was so upset.  Losing a young adult is bad enough without people trying to erase whatever defined his last days / years.

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41 minutes ago, happi duck said:

If I had only heard "the flu" said in a snarky dismissive manner while most people said "influenza" then yes it would bother me.

Like I said before, reading here that people said "the rona" without being dismissive helps it not grate on me.

It's the attitude not the words.

Yes.  The people I hear saying it dismissively definitely have air quotes either directly signed or implied in their mocking tone. 

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7 minutes ago, SKL said:

Even in New York, the majority of 2020 deaths have not been from Covid.  Roughly it's about 35,000 Covid deaths compared to annual non-Covid deaths (latest I have is 2017) of over 150,000 deaths.  I dunno, I feel it's kind of disrespectful to act like those non-Covid deaths [and illnesses] didn't happen. 

I didn't say "majority," I said it wasn't 95% over here. I'm sure that 35,000 is a slight underestimate, so let's say... 40,000? At that point, it's something like a quarter of all the deaths. That's a heck of a lot. 

 

7 minutes ago, SKL said:

A 29yo in-law died a couple months ago.  They tried to put Covid on his death certificate, even though he tested negative and there was no reason to believe he had Covid (unless you think death = covid).  His mom was so upset.  Losing a young adult is bad enough without people trying to erase whatever defined his last days / years.

I'm really sorry he died 😞 . What did he die of? 

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1 minute ago, Not_a_Number said:

I didn't say "majority," I said it wasn't 95% over here. I'm sure that 35,000 is a slight underestimate, so let's say... 40,000? At that point, it's something like a quarter of all the deaths. That's a heck of a lot.

Of course it's a lot, but my point is that there are still even more people dying of other things, whose families may feel disrespected with the "what else could it be but covid" attitude.

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5 hours ago, SKL said:

Even in New York, the majority of 2020 deaths have not been from Covid.  Roughly it's about 35,000 Covid deaths compared to annual non-Covid deaths (latest I have is 2017) of over 150,000 deaths.  I dunno, I feel it's kind of disrespectful to act like those non-Covid deaths [and illnesses] didn't happen. 

A 29yo in-law died a couple months ago.  They tried to put Covid on his death certificate, even though he tested negative and there was no reason to believe he had Covid (unless you think death = covid).  His mom was so upset.  Losing a young adult is bad enough without people trying to erase whatever defined his last days / years.

 

Sudden unexplained death of a 29 year old might in and of itself be reason to believe he had covid. And I'm assuming that his death is otherwise unexplained, or else you would've said that. People that age don't usually die for no reason.

As for the other deaths - quite a few deaths that we know have another direct cause have a proximate cause of covid. If the ICU and ER is filled up with covid patients, your car crash might kill you even if you would otherwise have survived. If you're out of work and things are awful, you are at an increased risk of death by suicide or unintentional overdose.

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Agreed. It's not like some people have greater or lesser deaths, or like anybody thinks that. And honestly - if you're dead, you no longer care what they wrote on your death certificate. If your surviving family is hyperfixated on that, it's probably the grief talking, because nobody who is thinking clearly thinks that one cause of death is better or worse than another.

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8 hours ago, SKL said:

Of course it's a lot, but my point is that there are still even more people dying of other things, whose families may feel disrespected with the "what else could it be but covid" attitude.

I think someone would likely only think that if they were told the person died of a virus. Given that we are in the midst of a pandemic, one would then probably assume it was the coronavirus. Of course they might be wrong, but the odds are in their favor.

Edited by Frances
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8 hours ago, SKL said:

There are so many viruses a person could have though.  It's almost like people think Covid has made every other virus invisible, which doesn't feel right to me.  Of course it also bugs me that every time anyone says __ is sick or __ died, the first thought is "was it Covid," even though 95% of 2020 deaths (and who knows what % of illnesses) in my state were from causes other than Covid.  My family has lost half a dozen people this year, none of them to Covid.  Bad enough they couldn't have funerals.  I dunno, it's hard to articulate why this bugs me, but it does.

Whose first thought? Your first thought? It certainly isn’t mine. Maybe because I know lots of elderly people and the majority have at least some health issues, my first thought is never the virus.

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1 hour ago, kand said:

But to be clear, none of those things would be counted as death from Covid, even if it did end up there was some influence. Regardless, if almost one quarter of deaths in New York in 2020 were from Covid, that’s astounding. And that’s the percentage I come up with with the numbers given as well—23%. That doesn’t make little at all of the people who died from other causes, but I don’t know how anyone would not find it tragic to have have that many excess deaths from a brand new, contagious disease. It’s an astounding thing we are living through. I don’t understand the attempt to minimize those deaths.  It’s not a contest regarding which cause of death is most important.

I think it’s cognitive dissonance that causes things like trying to minimize deaths from the virus.

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12 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

 

Sudden unexplained death of a 29 year old might in and of itself be reason to believe he had covid. And I'm assuming that his death is otherwise unexplained, or else you would've said that. People that age don't usually die for no reason.

As for the other deaths - quite a few deaths that we know have another direct cause have a proximate cause of covid. If the ICU and ER is filled up with covid patients, your car crash might kill you even if you would otherwise have survived. If you're out of work and things are awful, you are at an increased risk of death by suicide or unintentional overdose.

First of all, nobody said his death was unexplained.  It's simply nobody's business what his health problems were.

Secondly, had he been an otherwise healthy 29yo who caught Covid, his risk of death from that would have been much smaller than his risk of death from a number of other things.

Thirdly, even if a fraction of "non-covid deaths" were actually "covid deaths" (and vice versa), there are still 150,000 annual deaths in New York state which didn't stop happening because of covid.  There is no rational reason to default to a death = covid assumption.  Even if 50% or more of the deaths were proven to be from covid, it still does not erase the reality of those dying from other causes.  Based on reactions of people who have lost loved ones this past year, this is an important point.

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9 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

Agreed. It's not like some people have greater or lesser deaths, or like anybody thinks that. And honestly - if you're dead, you no longer care what they wrote on your death certificate. If your surviving family is hyperfixated on that, it's probably the grief talking, because nobody who is thinking clearly thinks that one cause of death is better or worse than another.

Everything about what we do after someone died is about the surviving family, of course.  It matters to them.  What is done after a loved one's death is very important in every human culture on earth.

I don't think it's irrational to care that your child's death certificate tells the truth.

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3 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I have found it’s the first question most people ask

That sounds annoying as heck.  It’s really none of their business.  I’m so sorry you have to deal with that, on top of everything else.

 

Those type of questions seem like a nosy, busybody, gossipy type of prying. Yuck.

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3 minutes ago, Spryte said:

@SKL I’m so sorry for the loss of your family member.  It’s unimaginable to lose someone so young.  That is heartbreaking.

 

 

Thanks.  I didn't really know the young man, but his mother was my classmate, so she's about my age.  This was her youngest child.  Although he had health problems, his death at 29 was really not expected.  I can't imagine it.

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I call it covid.

It has always grated when I’ve heard people call it The Rona, except the Holderness Family, because they do it in a playful, but not dismissive or disrespectful way.  

Now that I’ve heard a lot of hivers say how they use the term The Rona, it might not grate as much anymore.  Until now, I’d only heard people using it when they were downplaying covid and being sneery toward anyone taking it seriously (except for the Holderness Family).

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