Pingdemic is a British term that appeared in the summer of 2021 and is defined by Collins dictionary as “the large-scale notification of members of the public by a contact-tracing app” – hence the “ping.”
The NHS COVID-19 app is used in England and Wales and it works by calculating the “time and distance between mobile devices via Bluetooth, counting 15 minutes spent within two metres as close contact between users (Kent). If someone tests positive for coronavirus, their test result can be shared anonymously with those they come into contact with which results in people receiving a “ping” notification that they should isolate for ten days.
You can imagine the chaos this would have on businesses as millions of people get pinged whenever they’re in close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. Many companies struggled to stay open as employees were forced to go into quarantine and self isolate.
An article published in the Financial Times on July 21, 2021 said that 600,000 people were “were ordered to self-isolate by the NHS Covid-19 app in the week to July 14 as worker shortages caused by the latest wave of the pandemic in the UK threatened to disrupt food and fuel supplies” (Tim Bradshaw, Jim Pickard and David Sheppard). The number of pings from the NHS app rose by 17% from the prior week likely due to the increase in Covid cases. The article points out that “British business leaders have become increasingly agitated about the impact of the ‘pingdemic’ on staffing, which has exacerbated existing problems caused by Brexit and a shortage of lorry [truck] drivers.”
As usual, people get creative in times of distress. James Partridge, a British singer, teacher, composer and pianist uploaded a YouTube short video which he created called the “Pingdemic” song:
Social Media Trends as of July 23, 2022
Instagram #pingdemic: 1,434 posts
TikTok #pingdemic: 993.800 views
YouTube #pingdemic: less than 100 videos and channels
Google Trends: pingdemic first appeared during the week of July 18, 2021. but the popularity of the search term quickly lost interest – probably because this is a British search term. By the end of the August 2021 it no longer registered.
Sources:
Bagwold. “Pingdemic Covid-19 test and trace app” vector image. Dreamstime. URL: 225083478.
Kent, Chloe. “Tracking Covid-19: what does the ‘pingdemic’ mean for the pandemic?” Medical Device Network.com. July 28, 2021. URL: https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/analysis/pingdemic/.
Partridge, James B. “Pingdemic” song. YouTube. URL: https://youtube.com/shorts/B0CpbjZPiD4?feature=share.
“Pingdemic.” Collins Dictionary. URL: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/pingdemic.
Tim Bradshaw, Jim Pickard and David Sheppard. “UK ‘pingdemic’ spreads as record 600,000 people told to self-isolate.” Financial Times. July 22, 2021. URL: https://www.ft.com/content/1bdef6b5-672d-46e0-9502-492a432a51af.