Understanding COVID-19 - Words Matter

Coronavirus Language and Terms

From the BuzzFeed Style Guide

I was listening to the White House Coronavirus Task Force press conference. The president referred to the virus as “the Chinese virus.” Wrong.

Here are a few points from the BuzzFeed stylebook that is similar to the way the Associated Press writes about it.

The term COVID-19 = Corona Virus Disease emerged in 2019 —> CO +VI + D 2019.

• The new coronavirus or the novel coronavirus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, is a strain of the coronavirus virus family that originated in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. 

• Always use the article the when discussing the coronavirus (e.g., the spread of the coronavirus, not the spread of coronavirus). 

• The disease it causes is called COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019. Since the coronavirus is more commonly used, explain the distinction on the first reference of COVID-19. For example: The US now has TK cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

• It is not accurate to write "a new virus called COVID-19."

• When we talk about cases of people who are sick, it makes sense to say COVID-19 cases and deaths from COVID-19. Similarly, people can be infected by the coronavirus, but they get COVID-19.

• Refer to the spread of the virus as the coronavirus outbreak.