# Covid-19 vs Corona virus



## Packard

*Context:*

Everyone knows what the "context" is; we are all living it now.  But specifically, I am referencing this article from Reuters:

U.S. House committee launches probe of Trump WHO aid cutoff

_COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus. _

*Question:*

I have been using "Covid-19" and "coronavirus" interchangeably.  Is the distinction that Reuters made accurate?


----------



## Pedro y La Torre

Apparently "Covid-19" is the disease caused by the "coronavirus".



> COVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the new coronavirus that is called SARS-CoV-2, or sometimes just “novel coronavirus”.



Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs - University of Utah


----------



## Packard

OK. so Reuters seems like they are on solid ground on usage.  I will have to pay closer attention to the medias' use of those terms to see if it is used that way universally.


----------



## Myridon

In fact, you're still playing rather fast and loose by saying "coronavirus" when you mean SARS-CoV-2 which is the virus that causes COVID-19.  SARS-CoV causes SARS and MERS-CoV causes MERS.  Additionally, there are four other coronaviruses that are known to cause mild disease in humans.


----------



## natkretep

I think in ordinary use, it is common to use coronavirus and Covid-19 interchangeably. Covid-19, after all, stands for the 'coronavirus disease of 2019', and shortened to 'coronavirus'. Notice also people not using the article for 'coronavirus' (as in 'he's got coronavirus'). Nobody wants to say SARS-CoV-2. It's just like how initially we had 2019-nCoV - nobody wanted to say that!


----------



## Myridon

natkretep said:


> I think in ordinary use,


Yes, in ordinary use, people say "I ain't got no coronavirus." but I think the question here was about accurate language.


----------



## Egmont

In the early days of the pandemic I would hear _coronavirus_ and _COVID-19_ used interchangeably. As time goes on and people are exposed to more and more information about them, I hear them used correctly much more often now.


----------



## JulianStuart

The "official" word on this came from WHO


> Official names have been announced for the virus responsible for COVID-19 (previously known as “2019 novel coronavirus”) and the disease it causes.  The official names are:
> *Disease *
> coronavirus disease
> (COVID-19)
> *Virus *
> severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
> (SARS-CoV-2)


----------



## Pedro y La Torre

In normal life (like Packard), I don't think most people differentiate between the various scientific terms to be honest.


----------



## JulianStuart

Pedro y La Torre said:


> In normal life (like Packard), I don't think most people differentiate between the various scientific terms to be honest.


 Hence my quotes on the word "official" - to distinguish it from "common usage"


----------



## Pedro y La Torre

Yes, it was more as a reponse to Myridon who mentioned "I ain't got no coronavirus". I think there's a difference between that sort of talk and the average Joe talking about the "coronavirus".


----------



## Packard

Thanks everyone.  I think I will give all a good deal of leeway on this usage right now.  It is not the time for pedants.

Packard


----------



## The pianist

To quote a recent candidate for POTUS, "At this point, what difference does it make?"


----------



## sdgraham

We had a thread on this (more or less)  a week ago: COVID-19 or Covid-19?


----------



## Packard

sdgraham said:


> We had a thread on this (more or less)  a week ago: COVID-19 or Covid-19?


I saw that title, but I thought it related to capitals not to the name itself.  If I had seen Covid-19 or Covid19 I would have ignored that too.  I did not participate in that thread.  If the moderators feel it belongs in that thread they are free to attach this one to that thread.


----------



## JulianStuart

The pianist said:


> To quote a recent candidate for POTUS, "At this point, what difference does it make?"


Everyone knows what is being referred to _today_. After the fifth or sixth (COVID-22b) "coronavirus" in the future, it will matter  This one may end up needing a more preciise term than "coronavirus" and maybe actually following WHO as SARS-2 or something similar.


----------



## Ponyprof

The nomenclature was established earlier this year.

There is a large family of Corona viruses in humans and animals, including the one that causes SARS, as explained above.


----------



## JulianStuart

Ponyprof said:


> The nomenclature was established earlier this year.
> 
> There is a large family of Corona viruses in humans and animals, including the one that causes SARS, as explained above.


The link in #8 above indicates it was on 11 Feb  that the nomencalture was announced.


----------



## Packard

Thanks for all the replies. 

Packard


----------



## Magnolia Jia

JulianStuart said:


> Everyone knows what is being referred to _today_. After the fifth or sixth (COVID-22b) "coronavirus" in the future, it will matter  This one may end up needing a more preciise term than "coronavirus" and maybe actually following WHO as SARS-2 or something similar.


 I've noticed that you gave very good explaination on the difference  between "Covid-19" and "coronavirus" , for which, in my eyes, mainly about the sylisitic difference of formality and casualness. Would you please tell me how you understand the following question?

 Actually, there could be several possible options for the shortening form of "conrona virus disease" such as:

1 CVD
2 CoVD
3 COVID
4Covidi
5 Covidis
Which one do you think is the best according to your instinct? And why?


----------



## Packard

Magnolia Jia said:


> I've noticed that you gave very good explaination on the difference  between "Covid-19" and "coronavirus" , for which, in my eyes, mainly about the sylisitic difference of formality and casualness. Would you please tell me how you understand the following question?
> 
> Actually, there could be several possible options for the shortening form of "conrona virus disease" such as:
> 
> 1 CVD
> 2 CoVD
> 3 COVID
> 4Covidi
> 5 Covidis
> Which one do you think is the best according to your instinct? And why?


Regardless of what scientists finally decide to name this virus, those of us who are living through this period will always remember it as "coronavirus" or "covid-19".


----------



## Myridon

Magnolia Jia said:


> Which one do you think is the best according to your instinct? And why?


The one that is used officially is the best one to use.  Are you asking "What is the most common way to shorten long names in English?"  It would not involve international health organizations as this one did. 
I know there are some people who call coronavirus "the ro-ro".


----------



## zaffy

Pedro y La Torre said:


> Apparently "Covid-19" is the disease caused by the "coronavirus".



Yes, here in Poland we make this distinction.


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Packard said:


> Regardless of what scientists finally decide to name this virus, those of us who are living through this period will always remember it as "coronavirus" or "covid-19".


Thank you for your answer. I am not an English native speaker, so I lack that instinctive feeling to feel which shortening form is optimal and why WHO chose COVID but not sth else like CVD, Covd,Covidi or Covidis. There must be some phonological rule hidden under this choice. So as a native speaker, can you please tell me why Covid is selected but others failed? Is it only a coincidence?


----------



## Packard

I would note that even though it is now officially " _Legionella_ ", those of us who followed the stories in the mid 1970s will always call it "Legionnaires' Disease". So I think we will end up with possibly two or three names plus a future "official" name for this disease.


----------



## Packard

Magnolia Jia said:


> Thank you for your answer. I am not an English native speaker, so I lack that instinctive feeling to feel which shortening form is optimal and why WHO chose COVID but not sth else like CVD, Covd,Covidi or Covidis. There must be some phonological rule hidden under this choice. So as a native speaker, can you please tell me why Covid is selected but others failed? Is it only a coincidence?


Because you an say"Covid", how would you say "CVD or Covd"?


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Myridon said:


> The one that is used officially is the best one to use.  Are you asking "What is the most common way to shorten long names in English?"  It would not involve international health organizations as this one did.
> I know there are some people who call coronavirus "the ro-ro".


So why do you think it is best one? why others like CVD, Covd,Covidi or Covidis are not good?


----------



## entangledbank

The WHO chose a pronounceable name (COVID is pronounceable as a word in English and many other languages - though not of course Chinese), but probably* used all capitals because it's related to other recent global diseases like SARS and MERS. These are also pronounceable words, but are all capitals because each letter stands for a word: MERS = Middle East respiratory syndrome.

* I'm guessing

If anyone has the right to choose a name for the disease, it's the WHO.** And they decided on COVID-19 with all its capitals.

** even though they rejected my suggestions of Wuhan Outbreak Respiratory Syndrome (so we could say things are getting WORS and WORS), Mad Bat-Eating Death Plague of Doom, and so on, all 78 of them, and told me to stop writing to them. Can you _believe_ that?


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Packard said:


> I would note that even though it is now officially " _Legionella_ ", those of us who followed the stories in the mid 1970s will always call it "Legionnaires' Disease". So I think we will end up with possibly two or three names plus a future "official" name for this disease.


So there is difference between scientific term, official term and common casual use. SARS-CoV-2 is a scientific term, while COVID-19 is an official term which is less serious than SARS-CoV-2 but more formal than "coronavirus" or"covid".


----------



## Hermione Golightly

The options you propose just don't fit. I hear 'Covid19' most often or 'Covid'. I don't think we like words ending in vowels and I don't know why an ending in '-is' would seem appropriate. Some things are the way they are just because.


----------



## Magnolia Jia

entangledbank said:


> The WHO chose a pronounceable name (COVID is pronounceable as a word in English and many other languages - though not of course Chinese), but probably* used all capitals because it's related to other recent global diseases like SARS and MERS. These are also pronounceable words, but are all capitals because each letter stands for a word: MERS = Middle East respiratory syndrome.
> 
> * I'm guessing
> 
> If anyone has the right to choose a name for the disease, it's the WHO.** And they decided on COVID-19 with all its capitals.
> 
> ** even though they rejected my suggestions of Wuhan Outbreak Respiratory Syndrome (so we could say things are getting WORS and WORS), Mad Bat-Eating Death Plague of Doom, and so on, all 78 of them, and told me to stop writing to them. Can you _believe_ that?


* "pronounceable as a word in English and many other languages", well said! Thank you.*


----------



## entangledbank

No, the WHO chose the official = scientific names: the virus is officially called SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes is COVID-19. Both of those are short for long names using just words, but the main difference is between the virus and the disease. The virus is a coronavirus, which is a biological group of viruses. Another coronavirus is SARS-CoV, which causes the disease SARS.

Informally, we just call it '(the) coronavirus', ignoring the other coronaviruses, because in 2020 everyone knows which coronavirus we're thinking about. As always, xkcd gets it right.


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Hermione Golightly said:


> The options you propose just don't fit. I hear 'Covid19' most often or 'Covid'. I don't think we like words ending in vowels and I don't know why an ending in '-is' would seem appropriate. Some things are the way they are just because.


"words ending in vowels" are not that much well accepted by natives, maybe this reveals instinctively how native speakers create a new word.


----------



## Hermione Golightly

Many of our new words are borrowed from other sources, so we accept them as they are. Italian food words like _spaghetti _are most obvious example.


----------



## Magnolia Jia

entangledbank said:


> No, the WHO chose the official = scientific names: the virus is officially called SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes is COVID-19. Both of those are short for long names using just words, but the main difference is between the virus and the disease. The virus is a coronavirus, which is a biological group of viruses. Another coronavirus is SARS-CoV, which causes the disease SARS.
> 
> Informally, we just call it '(the) coronavirus', ignoring the other coronaviruses, because in 2020 everyone knows which coronavirus we're thinking about. As always, xkcd gets it right.


Right. Thank you for clarifying my misconception.


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Hermione Golightly said:


> Many of our new words are borrowed from other sources, so we accept them as they are. Italian food words like _spaghetti _are most obvious example.


Some words maybe are like this, but others maybe locals will do some changes to adapt local language's word formation rules.


----------



## entangledbank

'Coronavirus' is a long word that I suppose 99% of the population didn't know before this year, and no-one has a problem with that now. It's naturally become 'corona' for some people, because that's shorter, and also they know it's a virus and the two-word combination 'corona virus' therefore makes sense.

Of course zika is easier to remember and say than chikungunya - to take two new diseases we've had to learn about in recent years. (I spelt chikungunya wrong and had to google it just now.) They're both clearly foreign in form, not like English words, but English accepts a lot of foreign words pretty easily. A slightly foreign-looking name instead of COVID shouldn't be a problem.


----------



## Myridon

Packard said:


> Because you an say"Covid", how would you say "CVD or Covd"?


How do you say HIV, HPV, MS, ALS, ... ? CVD is cee-vee-dee.


----------



## Packard

Myridon said:


> How do you say HIV, HPV, MS, ALS, ... ? CVD is cee-vee-dee.


Yes, we could recite the initials, but calling out "CVD" is problematic. 

They are all "sound-alike" letters in our alphabet and are subject to mishearing.  Plus "CVD" is also "taken" by "Cardiovascular Disease" and "Cerebrovascular Disease" so "CVD" would require more than normal amount of context to be understood clearly.

Sound-alike letters that create issues, especially on the phone:

b,c,d,e,g,p,t,v,z. (b and p, especially, but often calls for "'C' like in Charlie, or a 'D' like in David, or a 'V' like in Victor" for clarity.)
f,s
a,j,k
m,n (requires an "'M', like in Mary or an 'N' like in Nancy" on the phone for clarity.)


----------



## Magnolia Jia

entangledbank said:


> 'Coronavirus' is a long word that I suppose 99% of the population didn't know before this year, and no-one has a problem with that now. It's naturally become 'corona' for some people, because that's shorter, and also they know it's a virus and the two-word combination 'corona virus' therefore makes sense.
> 
> Of course zika is easier to remember and say than chikungunya - to take two new diseases we've had to learn about in recent years. (I spelt chikungunya wrong and had to google it just now.) They're both clearly foreign in form, not like English words, but English accepts a lot of foreign words pretty easily. A slightly foreign-looking name instead of COVID shouldn't be a problem.


Thanks for your information, it is very helpful for me.  'Coronavirus' is now being shortened to shorter form "corona, kind of similar to Chinese four-syllable word "xin  guan fei yan" for "coron virus disease" is shortened to be disyllbic " xin guan".


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Myridon said:


> How do you say HIV, HPV, MS, ALS, ... ? CVD is cee-vee-dee.


But WHO chose COVID, not CVD, they must have their own consideration.


----------



## Magnolia Jia

Packard said:


> Yes, we could recite the initials, but calling out "CVD" is problematic.
> 
> They are all "sound-alike" letters in our alphabet and are subject to mishearing.  Plus "CVD" is also "taken" by "Cardiovascular Disease" and "Cerebrovascular Disease" so "CVD" would'Coronavirus'  to be understood clearly.
> 
> Sound-alike letters that create issues, especially on the phone:
> 
> b,c,d,e,g,p,t,v,z. (b and p, especially, but often calls for "'C' like in Charlie, or a 'D' like in David, or a 'V' like in Victor" for clarity.)
> f,s
> a,j,k
> m,n (requires an "'M', like in Mary or an 'N' like in Nancy" on the phone for clarity.)


tthanks, very good explaination. "require more than normal amount of context", this is one of point not to choose CVD


----------



## Packard

Magnolia Jia said:


> Thanks for your information, it is very helpful for me.  'Coronavirus' is now being shortened to shorter form "corona, kind of similar to Chinese four-syllable word "xin  guan fei yan" for "coron virus disease" is shortened to be disyllbic " xin guan".


I do wonder what all this will do to the sales of Corona Beer.






Addendum:  Corona beer stops production

_*Corona's coincidental name with the virus hasn't dented sales.* Constellation said sales of its beer brands grew 8.9% for the first three months of this year, with Modelo and Corona being its top sellers. Sales accelerated in the first three weeks of March, the company said, with its beers growing 24% compared to a year ago. _


----------

