{"id":46822,"date":"2020-03-10T17:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=46822"},"modified":"2020-03-16T15:41:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T14:41:50","slug":"salil-patel-covid-19-why-putting-a-name-to-it-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/03\/10\/salil-patel-covid-19-why-putting-a-name-to-it-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Salil Patel: Covid-19\u2014why putting a name to it matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"standfirst\">During emerging epidemics, we should be quicker to name and slower to sensationalise, urges Salil Patel<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36898 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2016\/06\/salil_patel3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"139\" height=\"131\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The collective threat that is covid-19 was nameless <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/dg\/speeches\/detail\/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-2019-ncov-on-11-february-2020\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">until a few weeks ago<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. At the start of the year, the term &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">coronavirus&#8221; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">was one that many people would not have heard of, but its search popularity on Google increased by an order <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/trends.google.com\/trends\/explore?date=2020-01-10%202020-01-30&amp;geo=US&amp;q=coronavirus\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">of 100 between 19 and 28 of January<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This novel coronavirus we&#8217;re facing is circumnavigating the globe, with Italy, Iran, and South Korea the latest countries to be heavily affected. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-51810673\">entirety of Italy is now in lockdown<\/a> a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nd <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esicm.org\/covid-19-update-from-our-colleagues-in-northern-italy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">intensive care units are bearing the <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">strain. Cities are striving to contain the virus, but many are failing.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the time the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease caused by this new virus covid-19 on 11 February, it was a month since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/coronavirus-timeline.html\">China had reported its first death<\/a>, 12 days since the WHO had declared a global health emergency, and the day the thousandth person had died in China<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. At this point, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/coronavirus-timeline.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the number of people who had died<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in China alone surpassed the total number of people who had died <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/02\/09\/world\/asia\/coronavirus-china.html#link-28cece0e\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) during the SARS-CoV epidemic in 2003<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses designated this new coronavirus as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41564-020-0695-z\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SARS-CoV-2<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). Yet it seems we are facing a very different battle to 2003.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause a constellation of similar symptoms and resulting diseases. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/coronavirus-covid-19\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Symptoms include fevers, coughs, myalgia, and breathing difficulties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This can result in a mild cold-like course or, at the more extreme end, severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan failure, and\u2014<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/opsdashboard\/index.html#\/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">as we can be reminded in real time<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014death. Coronaviruses are zoonotic in nature (jumping from animal to human). The 2003 SARS-CoV outbreak resulted in an epidemic <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/ith\/diseases\/sars\/en\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">affecting 26 countries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. While another recent coronavirus, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), was first identified <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/mers\/about\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in 2012<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and since then <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/middle-east-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-(mers-cov)\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">27 countries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have reported cases. The common cold\u2014that which we refer to after a week of runny noses, sore throats, and irritating coughs\u2014can also be caused by coronaviruses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why is a name important? All the diseases caused by the viruses mentioned above have an overlapping constellation of symptoms and can vary dramatically in severity. Mortality rates range, with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/s40169-020-00271-z\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SARS killing an estimated 9.6% of those infected, MERS killing 34.4%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/dg\/speeches\/detail\/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---3-march-2020\">covid-19 killing (an estimated) 3.4%<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is important to note that <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem;background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/3\/5\/21165973\/coronavirus-death-rate-explained\">this number is currently very fluid<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as it is calculated from confirmed cases only, and we need to be aware of how statistics may be affected by<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem;background-color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2020\/03\/how-many-americans-have-been-tested-coronavirus\/607597\/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=share\"> undertesting<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mortality rates are also not the sole metric to judge an epidemic by.\u00a0 After all, covid<\/span>-19 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/368\/bmj.m641\">has killed more people than the SARS and MERS outbreaks combined<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> because far more people have been infected.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While developing a vaccine, making policy changes that are based on the latest evidence, and finding effective antiviral treatments will be critical in this epidemic, language is also very much at the centre of all our public health endeavours. This is even truer in global emergencies.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The WHO, when announcing covid-19, stated that officially naming a disease is important to &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/dg\/speeches\/detail\/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-2019-ncov-on-11-february-2020\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8221; How often, for example, have we seen media reports refer to covid-19 as the \u201cChinese coronavirus\u201d? Names that include regions can lead to stigmatising reporting, which ranges from subtler misconstructions to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-7920573\/Revolting-footage-shows-Chinese-woman-eating-bat-scientists-link-coronavirus-animal.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">racist headline exclamations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In some parts of the world, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/coronavirus-uk-sees-rise-in-racism-targeting-asian-people-after-outbreak-in-china-11927470\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">racially motivated attacks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> against Asian people are spreading, just as surely as the virus itself. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/jan\/31\/spate-of-anti-chinese-incidents-in-italy-amid-coronavirus-panic\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Language matters<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. With the luxury of hindsight, we can see that perhaps the medical community may not have been quick enough to name this outbreak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Already, in this epidemic we\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/janelytvynenko\/coronavirus-disinformation-spread\">faced a lot of <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">misinformation in the guise of advice and inaccuracy in reporting<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In times of global health emergencies, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/10810730.2018.1527877?src=recsys\">people are prone to feeling fear and anger<\/a>, emotions that are often receptive to<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/emergency.cdc.gov\/cerc\/resources\/pdf\/cerc_2014edition.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> overblown rhetoric<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. At a time when hashtags can shape the narrative as much as official guidance, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-018-07034-4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">perception can outpace reality<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. We have access to reliable sources and need to make the most of these: t<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">he <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/coronavirus-covid-19\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NHS<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/diseases\/novel-coronavirus-2019\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WHO,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CDC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are good places to start for up to date information. And there are also expert voices leveraging the power of social media to inform, rather than embellish; for example, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamJKucharski\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adam Kucharski<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is doing marvellous work modelling viral spread and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mlipsitch\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marc Lipsitch<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is brilliantly poking holes in media misinformation.<\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The art of conveying the complexity of epidemics in order to educate <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> convince is deft. It requires a balance between teaching and horrifying, and its recommendations can range from reducing transmission through simple hygiene measures, to potentially grinding schools, hospitals, and cites to a halt. We might not yet have full control of the spread of this virus, or learnt all that we can about future mutations, but we can control the rhetoric. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/1524839908325267\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Creditable, responsible, and open communication can save lives<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> during an epidemic. Let us be quicker to name and slower to sensationalise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Salil Patel<\/strong> is an academic foundation doctor in London and research fellow at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SalilPatel\">Twitter\u00a0@SalilPatel\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests<\/strong>: None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During emerging epidemics, we should be quicker to name and slower to sensationalise, urges Salil Patel [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/03\/10\/salil-patel-covid-19-why-putting-a-name-to-it-matters\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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