The Impact of Words during the Pandemic ~ By Schuyler Velasco

 

The Impact of Words during the Pandemic
~ by Schuyler Velasco* ~

     “If you come up with certain phrases that haven’t been put together before, they’re like magical keys that take you to crazy places.”
~ David Lazer, political science and computer science professor at Northeastern University.

     Lazer can name some of the early word-based mistakes that might have helped misinformation about the virus and vaccines take hold. For instance, he thinks naming the process of developing the COVID vaccine “Operation Warp Speed,” was an unforced error. “I probably could have come up with a worse name, like ‘Operation Death Drug’ or something, but [it implied] they were hurrying up and throwing caution to the wind,” he says. “I understand the sentiment, trying to do this as quickly as possible, but it was terrible.”

     Over the summer, the term “breakthrough infections” came under scrutiny, as the medical community worked to dispel the false notion that, because vaccinated people could contract COVID, the vaccine must not have been working. “Maybe the word ‘breakthrough’ is part of the problem,” CNN host Brian Stelter posited to a panel of medical experts on the show Reliable Sources in August. “‘Breakthrough’ implies rare; it implies that something went wrong, and that’s not really the premise of the vaccine.”
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     * Source:  https://expmag.com/2021/10/words-got-us-into-the-anti-vaccine-crisis-heres-how-theyll-get-us-out/?utm_source=pocket-newtab