Coronavirus mayhem provided by Kenzo in Paris during Paris Fashion Week (February 2020). An enclosed bubble with hundreds of travelers from around the globe increases the susceptibility to possible airborne viral infections, like those caused by influenza and coronavirus. (Image: Kenzo INstagram)

The Coronavirus 2019 outbreak is a great example of science communication and miscommunication. When news from China broke that a slowdown was not happening any time soon, scientists, doctors and reporters were Tweeting frantically to halt misconceptions. their scholarly hearts were in the right place. Unfortunately, some of them missed the point of what people really give two emojis about.

Watch the throne

Twitter gives us the ability to communicate science and all things beyond in 280 characters (or more with those annoying threads). Some immunologists and virologists were great at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak to try to ease fears. Many of these were somewhat lengthy threads, but understandably necessary. However, who read these threads- fellow scientists or non-scientists? Do non-scientist readers really care about jargon like R0 values or the difference in disease and virus nomenclature? Talking to a significant amount of people outside of STEM would immediately tell you “NO”.

Nerds going viral. Representatives from biotech and government health agencies spoke from the known onset of a a novel coronavirus to address covid-19. Regeneron is aiming their efforts on antibodies that recognize the current coronavirus infecting earthlings globally (January 31 report). Dr. Fauci represented the NIH (National Institutes of health) to calm fears after patients in the US were diagnosed (February 26 report).

What, When, & Where…  Who cares?

Where:

Wuhan, China and beyond

When:

2019 to present

What:

Coronavirus 2019

What’s in a name?

Who Cares?

#COVID-19 trended on February 11th when WHO officially named the commonly used Wuhan coronavirus or coronavirus. Their choice was based on removing possible discrimination to cultural or national groups associated with “Wuhan coronavirus”. It is important to note that the acronym for the disease caused by the virus is COVID-19, which means Coronavirus Disease 2019. The virus is a type of SARS coronavirus and has a longer name. 

But, guess what? Nobody except for scientists care about those differences and details in nomenclature. These are nuances for the general public and big businesses; two groups that simply want the bottom line. Merging the disease and virus name in this case is like merging Jennifer Lopez’s name to JLo. Everyone knows who you’re talking about, no need to spell it out.

What do regular people and businesses want to know? Are they infected, where’s the pill to make it go away, are they going to die, and how much is this costing. Period.

Tech and apparel have been alert and feeling the losses from coronavirus prior to the current panic. (L-R) To lessen and avoid growing slows in production, Google and Microsoft moved production of their products out of China, the coronavirus 2019 epicenter (February 26 report). Adidas (February 12 report) and Luluemon (February 21 report) also started to see a downturn in sales as quarantine in Asia hit.

The main point in moving forward is to omit “SARS” from the nomenclature because that further ties the virus and disease to China. Why do WHO and other entities not want a viral epidemic or pandemic to be eternally linked to China? From Apple to Chanel, there are several reasons to not want to associate coronavirus to China. Money and discrimination are at the top of the list with only the former a dominant priority, unfortunately. 

Chanel has postponed a show in China, Apple is seeing a loss, a major tech convention was cancelled because attendees kept dropping out, and Lululemon closed its China stores. Luxury sales are down because the biggest luxury market has been China. Workers are not able to get to work, so everyone’s precious iPhones and yoga pants don’t get made.

This is why SARS-CoV-2, the virus’s actual name, is not used or frowned upon using in mass communication. Nobody wants to be reminded of the SARS scare nearly a decade ago and they certainly don’t want everyone to immediately bring back to mind that that was also from China. Bad business.

If the cultural, ethnic or national discrimination aspect of this was a genuine priority, then we would not have cases like Harvard vs Asian students or Duke’s language issue.

Beyond names and blame games, we all need to work together globally to limit the spread of viruses like the one that causes COVID-19. The best way to understand how is to get straight to the point instead of using convoluted social media threads.

Here’s The Breakdown

1. Coronavirus affects the respiratory system like pneumonia

2. Most people will not die from it

3. Older people and those with compromised/susceptible health systems Need to take extra precaution

4. Like the flu, avoid Spread by not touching entry points like nose, ears, eyes, and mouth

5. Learn how to wash your gross hands dirty dweeb

6. You still might get a really bad flu this season

7. don’t be a racist againt asians (or anyone else) dumbass

There are many types of science communication. The Breakdown is exactly that… a break down of the most important pieces of information to communicate with everyone that gets straight to the point. This is the bottom line that non-experts in the field and non-scientists appreciate. Not because they cannot understand the complexities of science, but because they have sh-t to do and nobody needs the nuances of every niche to take up more of their time. Tweets that get straight to the point accompanied with a reference to give readers the option to follow-up on the details are the best.