Understanding the emerging and reemerging terminologies amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Upadhyay, Madhu Kumari; Maroof, Khan Amir

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). During this phase of the health crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, news in print, electronic as well as the social media is abuzz with several emerging and reemerging terminologies. Some of them, such as “social distancing,” “infodemic,” “flattening the curve,” “quarantine,” “cluster containment,” and others were not in routine use but have suddenly reemerged and become the key toward understanding the disease and its prevention. Many of these terms have been a part of public health strategies used for centuries for containment of the spread of infectious diseases. These terms span across social, epidemiological, and administrative contexts concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Our article aims to present a better understanding of the meaning and origin of these terms and their application in the context of the current pandemic based on a review of the available literature such as chapters from textbooks, published guidelines of the WHO and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published articles in journals and newspapers through a comprehensive search of the electronic database in English.