Just when the world thought Covid-19 was waning1, many countries are seeing a huge resurgence of this deadly disease.  Indeed, in my own town in Montana, the hospital is overwhelmed with Covid patients and is now being forced to treat only the most serious of other ailments. 

The truly sad part is that in the United States (as elsewhere) many people are failing to exercise the most basic precautions (mask wearing for example).  They even have serious doubts about the efficacy2 of the available vaccines.  As I listened to some of my neighbors talk of this, it occurred to me that many of their doubts and uncertainties have a basis in linguistics.  After all, the words we choose and how we use them can drastically affect the message we convey.   

So it is that for this month’s column, I decided to clarify a few English words that tend to be misunderstood or misused in the context of this pandemic.  I stress that these are not all strictly scientific or medical terms.  Rather, some are words that have a wide application in both written and conversational English.

 AND THAT’S PRECISELY THE PROBLEM!!! 

Because such words are used in so many different ways under so many different circumstances, we tend to interpret them erroneously when they refer to the Covid Pandemic.  Here are a few examples with an accompanying “Covid definition.”  Let’s begin with the two words I have underlined above:

1.      Waning

In the summer of this year, we begin to hear that the pandemic was “waning”.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines this word as “decreasing or declining in importance,” and many of us took this definition too literally!  I suggest that the pandemic was never truly “waning.”   Rather, the number of cases was reducing sporadically.  In other words, the case count was fluctuating with a downward trend.  This is NOT the same as saying that this disease was “decreasing or declining in importance.” This is a subtle difference in meaning, but it is a very important one.

      2.      Efficacy

The Cambridge Dictionary defines this word as meaning “the quality of being effective; effectiveness.”  The problem here is that many people have confused “efficacy” with “legitimacy” or “perfection”!  Any of the approved vaccines are effective to some degree or other.  Therefore, they all have legitimacy even though they are not effective ALL the time.   Indeed, a medical professional will say something like, “This vaccine has a 60% efficacy.”  This DOES NOT mean the vaccine is illegitimate because it is not perfect!  To me, ANY drug that reduces my chances of getting Covid-19 BY ANY PERCENTAGE is legitimate.

      3.      Endemic versus Epidemic versus Pandemic

These three words are often confused.  In a fundamental way, they are similar because each indicates that a disease is prevalent.  Let’s consider these one at a time:

a.      Endemic is an adjective that means natural to, native to, confined to, or widespread within a specific place or population of people. Endemic is perhaps most commonly used to describe a disease that is prevalent in or restricted to a particular location, region, or population. For example, malaria is said to be endemic to tropical regions.  However, this word also has many non-medical applications.  For example, one could state that Grizzly Bears are endemic to Montana (and trust me, they really are – I’ve “met” a few!!!).

b.      An epidemic disease, on the other hand, is one “affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease IS NOT PERMANENTLY PREVALENT.  This is unlike an endemic disease that IS permanently prevalent in only a particular locality. 

c.       As I’m sure you can guess, a pandemic is the worst of the three.  A pandemic disease is an epidemic that has spread over a large area.  That is, it’s “prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world” (World Health Organization).   While the term “pandemic” can describe a disease that has spread across an entire country or a large landmass, the word is generally reserved for diseases that have spread across multiple continents or the entire world.

I hope this helps to clarify things a little, and I REALLY hope that this month’s column finds all of you safe and well.  See you next month.

Art