Lockdown, quarantine, curfew, face masks, community transmission, self isolation, close contact, virus hotspots, pandemic and Covid-19 or coronavirus.
It’s not all of the buzz words of phrases of 2020, but it’s a big enough list to keep us going for a while.
We’ve almost had to learn a new language to be able to stay in touch with where things have been in this terrible year.
None, apart from Covid-19 are new words, but they have all certainly resonated with us since February.
It’s easy to imagine that while one day the virus will be just a distant memory, hearing some of these Covid words will make us shudder.
Indeed today we got the news that a vaccine is not too far away and that it will be tremendously effective in keeping the virus away from us.
If I understand it correctly, the Pfizer vaccine is 90 percent effective, which is remarkable, considering the flu vaccine’s effectiveness is somewhere around the 40 to 60 percent mark.
If it turns out to be true, this vaccine will become a “hall of famer’’ as a science reporter said earlier today on TV.
Let’s hope so, and fingers crossed it becomes available before the end of 2020, giving us a reason to cheer up ahead of the festive season.
In the meantime, here’s our Top 5 of Covid-19 words and phrases that will continue to haunt us for many years to come.
Number 1: Lockdown has to be the one, hands down. You wouldn’t even be able to joke about a lockdown in 2050.
Number 2. Close contact. There’s a message you never, ever want to receive.
Number 3: Face masks. I wore one for about a month, but…
Number 4: Quarantine. It used to be reserved for animals arriving in Australia.
Number 5: Pandemic, because it means the virus is in every nook and cranny of the planet and there’s no escape from it.
