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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Dm suggesting that the use is the words covid or corona virus is class based issue

193 replies

ShallallalAa · 18/05/2020 23:03

Dm on the phone -
People who like drama call it covid.

People who prefer to make minimal fuss and get on with things call it coronavirus.

Ie the middle classes are more likely to call it coronavirus.

She was bu of course wasnt she. Didn't know what to say

OP posts:
whoopso · 19/05/2020 12:40

If you say covid like Michael Gove does you're a knob

MerryDeath · 19/05/2020 12:43

they are two different things. even reputable newspapers seem to have failed to grasp this.

Lostvoiced · 19/05/2020 12:46

People who fancy themselves middle class are so weird. They'll make up totally arbitrary things to feel superior.

BeyondDreamsOfBeyondFourWalls · 19/05/2020 13:24

You know technically it's coronaviridae, not corona virus... Wink

ClassicCola · 19/05/2020 13:29

I just call it corona. I care not if that's wrong or right.

SuperMumTum · 19/05/2020 13:46

I like to hear people using strange references such as "what's going on" or "the situation we're all in" to avoid saying it outright. But I think where I am the virus hasn't touched us much personally here (SW) but the lockdown has so maybe that's what people mean. My 5 year says it to the tune of "I like to move it move it" ie corona-virus-vrius.

BeltaneBride · 19/05/2020 13:52

I agree with your mother.
'Covid is used to make it scarier. It is also the preferred usage by a certain type of pompous public sector jobsworth on signs /the kind that misuse apostrophes and talk about the 'General Public'

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 19/05/2020 15:04

It's not called 19 because there are 18 others, it's called 19 because it was discovered in 2019.
There are many coronaviruses, not all of them affect humans.

SmileyClare · 19/05/2020 16:21

I didn't know that Thumbwitches I thought it was the 19th known corona virus.. haha what an idiot! Thanks.

ArgumentativeAardvaark · 19/05/2020 18:11

If you say covid like Michael Gove does you're a knob

Everyone was calling it Covvid at work today, I actually hadn’t thought to pay attention till now.

Is that so wrong though?

If it is short for Coronavirus disease then the first “o” sound in Coronavirus is short so why not pronounce Covid with a short “o” too?

Itstheprinciple · 19/05/2020 18:18

I think your mother has a point based on my household. Except DH adds a random 'r' in there so says 'corvid' which irritates me far more than it should.

nettie434 · 19/05/2020 18:52

Is that so wrong though?

It probably isn't ArgumentativeAardvark. Words that we pronounce 'coh' are usually compounds, like co-operative, co-worker but copper, coptic etc have a short o. However, as explained upthread covid is a contraction of coronavirus disease so I think it is ok to say covid.

<a class="break-all" href="//(www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">(www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

To be honest, if I learned that covvid was the correct pronunciation I would still be to embarrassed to say it that way in case everyone thought I was a pretentious fool.

ArgumentativeAardvaark · 19/05/2020 19:17

@nettie I’m not following your reasoning that it is OK to say “c-eau-vid” because it is a contraction of “coronavirus disease”? You have explained that back to me when it was exactly what I said in support of the “covvid” pronounciation, my point being that “Coronavirus” has a short “o”.

Are you saying that because it is a contraction, an invented word, that the rules of pronounciation for copper, Coptic, corona etc do not have to be applied?

whatshebininagain · 19/05/2020 19:30

I thought Coronavirus referred to the shape of the virus e.g. like one of those old WW1 mines you used to (still?) see at the seaside as charity boxes (for lifeboats).

This specific one is something like Coronavirus-SARS2 and the disease is Covid-19.

Not sure there's a class element.

Hadjab · 19/05/2020 19:32

I prefer to use the apocalypse - clearly I’m in a class of my own...

Oldsu · 19/05/2020 19:53

Er I call it the Lurgy - so what class am I

iVampire · 19/05/2020 19:54

This specific one is something like Coronavirus-SARS-2 and the disease is Covid-19

Correct - coronavirus is the whole family of viruses

begoniapot · 19/05/2020 20:04

People who say Covid (19) are correct. She's an arse.

PicsInRed · 19/05/2020 20:38

Everyday on the radio

"This is an announcement about the measures the UK government is taking to support the economy... through the period of crisis... caused

...by the coronavirus."

It's official. Wink

TisTheSeasonToBe · 19/05/2020 20:40

In our hospital it was corona when it came first, then it become covid, now its bloody covid and occasionally fucking hell RONA - when we are really annoyed!

HeronLanyon · 19/05/2020 20:47

I’ve been calling it ‘cooties’ a version of the lurgi in informal chat with dp. Until last week when local moorhens and coots hatched and it seems odd to say I’m off to the lake to see the little cooties.
In more adult convo I’ve been calling it ‘The coronavirus’ but written I have used covid19 (no hyphen?!).
Friends are calling it ‘Covid’
Also the situation and often ‘the shitshow’.

alwaysstressed · 19/05/2020 21:03

I absolutely agree with that I think she's spot on!

nettie434 · 19/05/2020 23:00

Are you saying that because it is a contraction, an invented word, that the rules of pronounciation for copper, Coptic, corona etc do not have to be applied?

I did wonder that ArgumentativeAardvark from a position of almost total ignorance Blush

Whatever one thinks of Michael Gove or Jenny Murray, they are very careful about pronunciation so I wondered if there was a rule they knew but the rest of us didn't.

DeeCeeCherry · 19/05/2020 23:13

Hyacinth Bucket territory

2catsblack · 19/05/2020 23:14

C19

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