A Secret Weapon in the Fight Against COVID-19

[mfcorey1]

*****snip*****

I looked up from their bewildered faces to the imposing mountains and wondered how we would win the war if the people we were trying to help didn't even understand our goals.

In this fight against COVID-19 -- a fight we cannot afford to lose -- we're all soldiers. Everyone plays a critical role in slowing the virus' advancement.

And so, our leaders and media must be crystal clear in communicating our marching orders.

When the crisis started, many of us felt as confused as those villagers in Afghanistan. How serious is it? How concerned should we be? Is this like the flu? Is it deadlier?

There were conflicting reports. There were rumors. There was no clear authority of information.

During the early stages of a largely unknown virus, confusion is understandable. Scientists are racing to get a handle on something spreading at an exponential rate.

Governments and the media can't control that. But what they can control is the language they use to describe events to an anxious public.

That's why it's important to use words everyone understands. When spoken to the public, terms like zoonotic, asymptomatic and community transmission can sow confusion and worsen fears. But scientific terminology can be broken down into plain language we all can understand.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/16/secret-weapon-fight-against-covid-19.html

[johnthewoodworker]

1. Good point. Obama would have been so on point with this.

[mitch96]

2. Agree. When I worked in hospitals I would always try to translate medical terminology double speak

to my patients. Med Terms are the secret code medical personel use. It's also prevelent in Lawyer speak. It's roots are latin and greek... Our first doctors and lawyers
I can say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis or I can tell the patient he has a lung disease caused by sicila dust.. easy peasy..
Or the disease our prez has. Fecal encephaly....... aka shit for brains...
m

[Delmette2.0]

3. LOL, "Fecal encephaly"

Thanks I needed a laugh.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Speaking of shit ...

The Oxford English Dictionary lists pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis as “a factitious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by inhalation of very fine silica dust usually found in volcanos' but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word”.

[mitch96]

5. Ok I'll see your Oxford and raise you one https://www.merriam-webster.com/

"Medical definition of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis: a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust."
A funny note Cambridge Dictionary calls it a made up word..

"a name that has been invented for a lung disease caused by breathing in very small pieces of ash or dust"

Well shit jackson all words are "made up" Easy to do in Medical terminology. Just take any base word and play around with the prefixes and suffixes to "invent" a word or phrase..
Like Fecal encephaly..... There is no "medical" term for shit head.. just made up..
YMMV,
m