Month: May 2022

Categories
Pandemic Virus

Omicron

Omicron is the name of a highly transmissible variant of the Covid-19 virus and was first detected in South Africa in November 2021. Two months later it had spread around the world faster than previous variants. It arrived in the United States in the same month it was detected in South Africa. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on December 1, 2021 that “the California and San Francisco Departments of Public Health have confirmed that a recent case of COVID-19 among an individual in California was caused by the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529). The individual was a traveler who returned from South Africa on November 22, 2021. The individual had mild symptoms that are improving, is self-quarantining and has been since testing positive.” By Christmas 2021, Omicron was the world’s most dominant variant.

So where did the variant gets its name from? Omicron is one of the Greek letters of the alphabet. An article published for the South China Morning Post on 17 December 2021 explains why: “Alpha, beta, gamma, delta…[The] World Health Organization determined in May 2021 that its nomenclature for important strains in the Sars-CoV-2 variant classification would adopt Greek-letter names (as opposed to place-of-origin names, such as “Wuhan virus” or “South African variant”, the practice criticised for contributing to xenophobia and racism)” (Lim).

The new variant dashed hopes of a return to normal during the Christmas holidays and delayed return to office plans. Cases rose exponentially and schools deliberated whether to return to virtual learning. An article published on December 20, 2021 for NBC News on December 16, 2021 reports that “The omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the United States, shattering hopes of a return to relative normalcy in the final days of the year and harkening back to the anxiety of the early months of the Covid-19 crisis. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday that the variant is “just raging through the world” (Arkin).


Omicron sounds more like the name you would give to a transformer than a Covid variant. Ironically, an anagram of the word spells “Moronic.”

Omicron is the name you might give to a transformer (Wikipedia)

The Covid-19 variant started popping up in memes and YouTube videos. Here’s a Star Trek parody of how to pronounce the word “Omicron.”


Here’s a tweet showing a parody photo of the UK gameshow Countdown with the words Omicron and its anagram Moronic.


Social Media Trends as of May 11, 2022

Facebook #omicron: 300,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #omicron: 594,110 posts
TikTok #omicron: 3.2 billion views
YouTube #omicron: 130,000 videos and 30,000 channels

Google Trends: omicron as a search term became popular during the week of November 21, 2021 and peaked around Christmas Day around the time it became the world’s most highly transmissible variant.

omicron search term

Sources:

Arkin, Daniel. “Omicron spreads across U.S., dashing holiday hopes, putting NHL on pause.” NBC News. December 21, 2021. URL: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/omicron-variant-spreads-us-dashing-hopes-normal-christmas-rcna9350.

“First Confirmed Case of Omicron Variant Detected in the United States.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. December 1, 2021. URL: https://www.cdc.gov/media/
releases/2021/s1201-omicron-variant.html.

FreedomPodcast1. Countdown gameshow image. Twitter. November 27, 2021. URL: https://twitter.com/FreedomPodcast1/status/1464660316697075718.

Lim, Lisa. “Language Matters – Omicron: where does the variant Covid-19 name come from?” South China Morning Post. 17 December 2021. URL: https://www.scmp.com/
magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3159959/omicron-where-does-variant-covid-19-name-come.

Mark2k. “How to Pronounce “Omicron” the Star Trek Way.” YouTube. 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GjMbMQGOpA.

prayitno. “Costume characters at Universal Studio Hollywood – Optimus Prime & Bumble Bee TRANSFORMERS THE RIDE-3D Universal Studios ~ Hollywood, California.” Wikipedia. May 20, 2012. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Transformers#/media/File:Transformers_costume_characters_at_Universal_Studios_Hollywood.jpg.

Categories
Pandemic

Zoom Bombing

During lockdown when people worked remotely and used Zoom to stay in touch with their coworkers a new issue arose – Zoom bombing. This is where an uninvited person joins your video call over Zoom without permission.

An article published on the website How to Geek in April 2020 described the main cause of this: “The problem is how people handle public Zoom meeting links. These links are shared thousands of times between clients, friends, colleagues, classmates, and so on. Careless handling of them can result in a Zoom meeting being open to public access. Then, anyone who finds the link can join an in-progress meeting” (Gunnell).

Unauthorized persons who hijack Zoom meetings have been known to make offensive comments, throw racial slurs and bully people. There are many ways to prevent this from happening. If you must use links without a password don’t post them where they can be easily accessible or found by Google. In the Zoom settings menu you can disable the “Embed Password in Meeting Link for One-Click Join” setting and make it a requirement to have a password to join the meeting. Screen sharing can be disabled except for the host so inappropriate content is not shown. The “Remote Control” feature should be disabled if you don’t want other participants to control your computer. If you don’t want files to be shared you can disable the “File Transfer” option. For a full list of ways to prevent Zoom Bombing read the here.

Zoom bombing can also refer to the unexpected appearance of individual(s) in a video who weren’t supposed to be there. Prior to Zoom calls, the old term was video bombing. One humorous example of Zoom Bombing happened during lockdown during a live interview with the BBC. On May 15, 2021 The Indy100 website published an article titled “Jon Ashworth’s daughter is the latest kid to Zoom-bomb a TV interview.” The shadow health secretary was giving a live interview when his daughter made a cameo appearance. The interview went viral and appeared on Twitter.

Many of us working remotely are using Zoom for business, meetings, interviews and classes. One mom from New Hampshire zoom bombed her kids’ classes while wearing embarrassing costumes, such as a bear suit and an old man, and posted selfies on her local New Hampshire Facebook page.

Lexicon images: zoom bombing

Social Media Trends as of May 9, 2022

Facebook #zoombombing: 3,100 people are posting about this
Instagram #zoombombing: 2,685 posts
TikTok #zoombombing: 76.3 million views

Google Trends: zoombombing didn’t register until March 2020 when the pandemic arrived in the United States. The popularity of the term reached its peak during the week of March 29, 2020 which coincided with lockdown.

zoom bombing search term

Sources:

Guardian News. “Shadow health secretary’s daughters gatecrash live TV interview.” You Tube. April 12, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qir6bD7Y7mM.

Gunnell, Marshall. “What Is Zoombombing, and How Can You Stop It?.” How to Geek. April 10, 2020. URL: https://www.howtogeek.com/667183/what-is-zoombombing-and-how-can-you-stop-it/.

Hourigan, Tom. “A new victim of child Zoom-crashing tonight: shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth.” Twitter. May 14, 2021. URL: https://twitter.com/TomHourigan/status/1393268954274140162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7
Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1393268954274140162%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indy100.com%2F
politics%2Fjonathan-ashworth-mp-daughter-zoom-b1848031.

Lexicon images. “zoombombing concept represented by wooden letter tiles on a wooden table with glasses and a book” image. Adobe.com. File no: 344298530.

WMUR-TV. “NH mom Zoom-bombs kids’ meetings.” You Tube. May 14, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQJTyb3DHuE.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Movie

Blursday

Happy Blursday to all my readers! This term entered the lexicon soon after lockdown began. My office was closed in March 2020 and everyone was told to work from home for two weeks till the pandemic had run its course. Well two weeks turned into two months and then two years. Everyday was the same and like many other people who worked remotely, I started to lose track of the days. Was it Thursday or Friday? Sunday or Monday? With no daily commute, every day felt like yesterday, especially under lockdown when we couldn’t go outside except to go shopping or for a solitary walk around the block. Time seemed to pass quickly and the days went by in a blur.

@1corporatemillennial

i swear I just walked out of work Friday 🤯 #123PandoraME #corporatemillennial #wfh #millennialsoftiktok #sundayscaries #9to5 #corporatejokes #corporateamerica #weekend

♬ original sound – girls
Elly | Corporate Millennial


The Collins Dictionary has “blursday” listed as a new word suggestion: “humorous word for any day of the week that feels not much different from the one before” (Melony).

The Urban Dictionary has a couple of entries for “blursday,” one dating from 2007, so this isn’t a new term:

Defintion #1: “When you’ve been sheltering in place for so long because of a global pandemic you have no idea what day it is as they all blur together.

–Blursday! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, blursday, blursday, blursday and blursday” (DarleneOliviaPope).

Defintion #2: “A day you spend hungover, high, or drunk.

-I got so drunk on Friday. I slept in all blursday but Sunday I went to brunch” (J4432).


Blursday appears in a number of online publications. An article published for WebMD on May 7, 2020, entitled “Today is Blursday: How Lockdown Warps Time,” describes the feeling “of your internal clocks melting as your stay-at-home days drone on” and that many people all over the world report that their perception of time has been distorted because of the effects of lockdown. Most feel that time is speeding up but others say their days have slowed down to a crawl (Goodman).

Some people got creative during lockdown and produced journals for sale like this cool notebook from Amazon described as a “Funny notebook for the shelter in place self-quarantine phenomena where the days blur together” (Lit Notebooks).


Blursday is the name of a movie released in June 2021 which was directed by Vincent Soberano, an award winning actor and filmmaker, and tells the true stories of three couples in their apartments during lockdown. The IMDB entry describes the movie as “a unique and profound story about loss, love and pregnancy during confinement.”

An article published for Broadway World on May 29, 2021 quotes Soberano’s reasons for making the movie: “On Blursday, I wanted to produce a time capsule film, detailing a journey through THE FIRST 100 DAYS of the global pandemic. Following the global theme of “we are all in this together”, I created a couple of cinematic rules: To be performed by three couples around the world and to be captured inside their own apartments using computers and phone cameras.” The movie was filmed at each of the couples’ apartments in Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, “shot via Zoom and in person” (Wild). Watch the trailer below:

image submitted by Piscine26

Social Media Trends as of May 7, 2022

Facebook #blursday: 2,400 people are posting about this
Instagram #blursday: 6,081 posts
TikTok #blursday: 828,000 views
YouTube #blursday: less than 100 videos and channels

Google Trends: blursday first appeared as a blip in February 2009 and didn’t really take off in popularity until March 2020 when lockdown arrived in the United States. The term peaked in April 2020 at the peak of lockdown and then tailed off for a pit, spiking again in November 2020 (as some states reintroduced lockdown after previously lifting them) before returning to where it was in 2009.

blursday search term

Sources:

“Blursday.” IMDB. June 5, 2021. URL: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14016668/.

BLURSDAY a film by Sergio Guerrero-Garzafox (TRAILER v1). YouTube. July 6, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnXwLdXqxms.

Elly | Corporate Millennial. “When you blink twice and it’s Sunday again.” TikTok. October 3, 2021. URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@1corporatemillennial/video/7014913386840444166?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en.

DarleneOliviaPope and J4432. “Blursday.” The Urban Dictionary. April 24, 2007; September 23, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blursday.

Goodman, Brenda. “Today is Blursday: How Lockdown Warps Time.” WebMD. May 7, 2020. URL: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200507/what-day-is-it-this-it-your-brain-on-quarantine.

Lit Notebooks. “Just another Blursday!: Funny shelter in place humor planner, journal and anything book.” Amazon. June 15, 2020. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Just-another-Blursday-shelter-anything/dp/B08BD9CXLH.

Melony. “Blursday.” Collins Dictionary. 20 May 2020. URL: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/22351/Blursday.

Piscine26. “blursday and don’t know what day of the week it is” image. Adobe.com. File no: 408910903.

Wild, Stephi. “LALIFF 2021 Will Screen BLURSDAY, a Film Shot During Lockdown In Three Different Countries.” Broadway World. May 29, 2021. URL: https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/LALIFF-2021-Will-Screen-BLURSDAY-a-Film-Shot-During-Lockdown-In-Three-Different-Countries-20210529.

Categories
Pandemic

The Great Reset

The term “The Great Reset” has been around for a couple of years and is the name of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which was held in June 2020. Klaus Schwab is the founder and chairman of the WEF which started in 1971. The forum meets annually in Davos, Switzerland. Its attendees are politicians, leaders and those prominent in the business world.

Although the term is prevalent everywhere in newspapers, magazines and social media, the Urban Dictionary was the only dictionary that had a definition:

The Great Reset is a proposal by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to rebuild the economy sustainably following the COVID-19 pandemic. It was unveiled in May 2020 by the United Kingdom’s Prince Charles and WEF director Klaus Schwab. It seeks to improve capitalism by making investments more geared toward mutual progress and focusing more on environmental initiatives. It has been criticized for using the pandemic to implement a risky experiment and a petition to stop it gained 80,000 signatures in less than 72 hours. A conspiracy theory has spread in response, claiming it will be used to bring in socioeconomic and environmental changes and a supposed New World Order.”

The official website of the WEF has a page discussing the “Great Reset” and the opening sentence is a quote from Klaus: “The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world” (WEF). The organization discusses how the world can “reset itself” after the pandemic is over to create a more sustaining, prosperous future led by politicians, digital entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

An article published on the WEF website in 2016 entitled “8 predictions for the world in 2030” quotes Danish MP Ida Auken: “I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes. Shopping is a distant memory in the city of 2030, whose inhabitants have cracked clean energy and borrow what they need on demand.” It was from this quote that the catchphrase “You will own nothing and you will be happy” proliferated across social media.

On 5 June 2020 the WEF produced a video featuring highlights from the 50th annual meeting known as “The Great Reset Launch.” The points for discussion focus on a “new social contract centred on human dignity, social justice and where societal progress does not fall behind economic development.“


Social Media Trends as of May 5, 2022

Facebook #thegreatreset: 33,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #thegreatreset: 117,002 posts
TikTok #thegreatreset: 108,500,000 views
YouTube #thegreatreset: 6,400 videos and 1,000 channels

Google Trends: the great reset first appeared as a blip in June 2020 which was around the time that the World Economic Forum hosted its annual meeting to discuss “The Great Reset.” The popularity of the term peaked during the week of November 15, 2020.

the great reset search term

Sources:

“8 predictions for the world in 2030.” World Economic Forum. 12 November 2016. URL: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/8-predictions-for-the-world-in-2030/.

DjinnHevoka. “Great Reset.” The Urban Dictionary. December 12, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20Great%20Reset.

“The Great Reset” World Economic Forum. URL: https://www.weforum.org/focus/the-great-reset.

“The Great Reset Launch | Highlights.” World Economic Forum. 5 June 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5pxhSnDr4U.

Categories
Pandemic

Covidian

Covidian is a new term and its broadest meaning is anything related to or typical of the Covid-19 pandemic. It can refer to someone who follows all the health directives and mandates. The term is listed in the Urban Dictionary and here are three definitions:

Definition #1: “A Covidian is someone who lived through the global Covid-19 pandemic, starting in January 2020

-She was a Covidian. She survived the Covidian era.
-They met in the Covidian crisis.
-He hoarded toilet paper in the Covidian era” (Cosgrove)

Definition #2: “A person who identifies with COVID-19, or is obsessed with COVID-19 ‘prevention’ measures.

-Look at this Covidian wearing his mask while driving his car alone.
-This Covidian attempted to argue that health is more important than freedom. Little did the Covidian know, health requires freedom” (_Correct_ Definitions_).

Definition #3: “a child born during the COVID pandemic

-I was born as a result of the pandemic shut down of March 2020, therefore I am a Covidian” (Monocle77).


GREETINGS COVIDIANS is the name of a visual research project at Florida International University which looks at and analyzes personal experiences during the pandemic. It is led by the Research Network for Health and Society (REACH) The project is featured in an online article written for FIU entitled: “Greetings, Covidians: Seeing COVID-19 through fresh eyes” (Lederman). To participate, visit https://www.greetingscovidians.net/ and submit an anonymous photo with a caption that explains how you’re experiencing the pandemic. The picture can be taken inside your home or in a pubic place. Your submission forms part of a digital gallery.

Here’s a YouTube video from Dr. Z’s called “Covidians vs Covidiots.” Dr. Z encourages people to find middle ground so they don’t become too casual or too cautious about coronavirus.


Social Media Trends as of May 4, 2022

Facebook #covidian: people are posting about this
Instagram #covidian: 672 posts
TikTok #covidian: 48,600 views
YouTube #covidian: less than 100 videos and channels

Google Trends: covidian appeared in December 2019 and achieved peak popularity April 2020.

covidian search term

Sources

“Covidian.” The Urban Dictionary. May 27, 2020 URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Covidian.

“COVIDian” – Word Sense Online Dictionary. 4th May 2022. URL: https://www.word
sense.eu/COVIDian/.

Dr. Z. “Covidiots Vs. Covidians? An Alt-Middle View.” Dr Z. YouTube. ZDoggMd. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZIJ0ekD_HE.

Lederman, David. “Greetings, Covidians: Seeing COVID-19 through fresh eyes.” Florida International University. July 15, 2020. URL: https://news.fiu.edu/2020/greetings,-covidians-seeing-covid-19-through-fresh-eyes.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Virus

Quarantine

Quarantine: “A form of living hell during Covid-19 where we have to stay home and live a very shitty life style and our mental health is affected. We also can’t see our friends or anyone for a long time. We are also out of school and everything.” Also known as a “Cornteen,” the American spelling of quarantine (Urban Dictionary).

We’re in Year 3 of the pandemic and most of us have probably quarantined at least once. It’s a strategy designed to prevent transmission of coronavirus by having those who had close contact with an infected person stay apart from others and having their movements restricted to see if they get sick. Many governments imposed quarantines on people who traveled abroad or even across state lines. Typically the quarantine period was 14 days though this has changed as more people are vaccinated.

The UVA Health website has a glossary of pandemic terms, and for quarantine it says it “is sometimes called ‘isolation.’ Quarantines keep people away from each other to prevent the spread of disease. Stay-at-home orders are a type of quarantine” (Glossary of Terms).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if you were exposed to someone with Covid-19 you should remain home and quarantine for 5 days while wearing a mask around others in the home. You are advised not to travel. After five days you should get tested and watch for symptoms for 10 days from the day you last had contact with someone diagnosed with Covid-19. You do not need to quarantine if you have been fully vaccinated or you previously tested positive for Covid-19 within the last 90 days (Quarantine and Isolation).

Alessi Ayvaz, staff writer for The Californiam recently wrote an article on how the pandemic has changed our lexicon: “If I asked each one of you reading this article the exact difference between quarantine and isolation before and after the pandemic, I am almost certain that you would have had to look up the definitions before (and hopefully not research as much now, whether or not you’ve had your own experiences in the La Loma dorms in Foothill). The CDC defines quarantine as “separating” and “restricting” people possibly exposed to an infection to see if they do become sick, whereas isolation is separating those who are confirmed to be sick from those who are not.“

So what did people do when stuck in quarantine? LoveThyNerd website published a “Nerdy Quarantine Resource Mega List” for nerds which had information on quarantine info, groups to play games with on Facebook, exercising for nerds, coloring pages and online conventions for those in quarantine.

On March 26, 2020 veteran U.S. Army Ranger Mat Best and country artist Tim Montana wrote the song “Quarantine.” As of May 2, 2022 the song has received over 4.5 million views.

“Quarantine, quarantine, Drinking whiskey like vaccine, Waving at the neighbors, Social distancing.”

image submitted by brovarky

Social Media Trends as of May 1, 2022

Facebook #quarantine: 3.9 million people are posting about this
Instagram #quarantine: 29,963,299 posts
TikTok #quarantine: 78.7 billion views
YouTube #quarantine: 304,000 videos and 138,000 channels

Google Trends: quarantine achieved peak popularity during the week of October 25, 2020.

quarantine search term

Sources

Ayvaz, Alessi. “From herd immunity to ‘maskne’: How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our English lexicon.” The Daily Californian. April 14, 2022. URL: https://www.dailycal.org/2022/04/14/from-herd-immunity-to-maskne-how-the-covid-19-pandemic-has-changed-our-english-lexicon/.

Brovarky. “Quarantine.” Adobe.com. File no: 324143620.

Caouette, April-Lyn. “Nerdy Resource Quarantine Mega List.” Love Thy Nerd. April 10, 2020. URL: https://lovethynerd.com/nerdy-quarantine-resource-mega-list/.

“Coronavirus & COVID-19: Glossary of Terms.” University of Virginia. URL: https://uvahealth.com/services/covid19-glossary.

Goth Doll. “Cornteen.” Urban Dictionary. October 19, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cornteen.

“Quarantine” a song by Mat Best and Tim Montana. YouTube. March 26, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3xpRZITi2w.

“Quarantine and Isolation.” Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. March 30, 2022. URL: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html#quarantine.

Thesavageofall. “Quarantine.” The Urban Dictionary. March 29, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Quarantine.

Categories
Pandemic Vaccine Virus

Dr. Fauci

Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci serves as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, a position he has held since January 20, 2021. He has advised many Presidents on local and global health concerns such as HIV/AIDS. Dr. Fauci also serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he has held since 1984. You can read more about his extensive research into infectious diseases here.

Dr. Anthony Fauci attending a
pandemic update April 7, 2020

Whether you like him or not, Dr. Fauci has become a household name and is the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has given extensive interviews in the media concerning the pandemic, mask wearing and vaccinations.

An article published on 22 March 2020 for The Guardian entitled “Coronavirus: meet the scientists who are now household names” discusses how medical experts found themselves in the ‘Covid-19 spotlight.'” Speaking of Dr. Fauci, correspondent Jon Henley writes “Anthony Fauci has earned praise from the US public for telling the truth about coronavirus, even when it means contradicting the president” (Henley).

A new term was added to the dating lexicon in February 2021. To “Fauci” someone is to cut off a relationship with a person who doesn’t take social distancing or the pandemic seriously as this Twitter interview with Dr. Fauci confirms:

Social Media Trends as of May 1, 2022

Facebook #fauci: 53,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #fauci: 103,174 posts
TikTok #fauci: 322.2 million views
YouTube #fauci: 4,000 videos and 1,600 channels

Google Trends: dr fauci achieved peak popularity during the week of October 25, 2020.

dr fauci search term

Sources

“Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID Director.” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. URL: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/director.

HBO Documentaries. “AXIOS on HBO: Dr. Anthony Fauci (Promo) | HBO.” Twitter. February 14, 2021. URL: https://twitter.com/HBODocs/status/1360997229557936128?ref_src=twsrc^tfw.