Twindemic

Twindemic first appeared in an article written for the New York Times on August 16, 2020. Jan Hoffman, who writes about behavioral health, referred to a nightmare scenario that would give public health officials chills – the combination of Covid 19 and “a severe flu season, resulting in a twindemic.” Health experts worried that people choosing not to get the flu shot would make matters worse if they got both respiratory illnesses together. Some people worried that getting the flu shot would make them more susceptible to getting Covid-19.

The term was added to Dictionary.com on September 9, 2020 and here’s the definition:

The term twindemic blends twin, here meaning “twofold” or “double,” and pandemic, a global outbreak of a disease, such as COVID-19. In other words, a twindemic represents “twin pandemics” of flu and COVID-19 at the same time. Twindemic may also be informed by a word closely related to pandemic, epidemic—a term for a widespread but more temporary disease outbreak that is often used in the context of seasonal influenza (flu, for short) outbreaks.

The term spread as quickly as the virus and appeared in various publications round the world. As recently as June 24, 2022 an article appeared in the New Zealand publication Stuff that described the country as being “in the grip of a ‘twindemic’ as a severe flu season combines with Covid-19 to put stress on the health system and leave workplaces with staff off sick” (MdConald) Nikkei Asia published a news article on June 19, 2022 declaring that “Australia is seeing a surge in flu cases even as the country continues to contend with the coronavirus, creating the specter of a ‘twindemic’ health crisis experts have been warning about” (Koshikawa).

NBC New York uploaded a video to YouTube on November 9, 2021 which discusses the chances of a “twindemic” happening. Watch closely as medical experts tell you what you need to know.

Social Media Trends as of June 18, 2022

Facebook #twindemic: 1,300 people are posting about this
Instagram #twindemic: 1,375 posts
TikTok #twindemic: 1.6 million views
YouTube #twindemic: less than 100 videos and channels

Google Trends: twindemic appeared during the week of August 16, 2020 when Jan Hoffman used the term in an article published that very week in the New York Times. The popularity of the term tailed off for a while but peaked in October 2021 as the Omicron variant spread quickly throughout the world in a second wave of the pandemic during the flu season.

Sources:

Dzmitry. “Pandemic or twindemic symbol” image. Adobe.com. File no: 465531514.

Hoffman, Jan. “Fearing a ‘Twindemic,’ Health Experts Push Urgently for Flu Shots.” New York Times. August 16, 2020. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/
08/16/health/coronavirus-flu-vaccine-twindemic.html.

Koshikawa, Noriaki. “Australia faces ‘twindemic’ threat as flu and COVID collide.” Nikkei Asia. June 19, 2022. URL: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/
Australia-faces-twindemic-threat-as-flu-and-COVID-collide.

MacDonald, Liz. “‘Twindemic’ takes toll on health sector, schools and businesses as flu overtakes Covid-19.” Stuff. June 24, 2022. URL: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/
health/129061676/twindemic-takes-toll-on-health-sector-schools-and-businesses-as-flu-overtakes-covid19.

NBC New York. “Covid and the Flu: Could We Face a ‘Twindemic’? NYC Experts Weigh In | NBC New York.” YouTube. November 9, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLENhB_8Vc.

“Twindemic.” Dictionary.com. September 9, 2020. URL: https://www.dictionary.com/e/
tech-science/twindemic/.