The word “vaccine” has increased by 601% in definition searches during the year, compared to 2020.
Washington:
The Merriam-Webster American Reference Dictionary on Monday revealed “vaccine” as the word of 2021, reflecting both the hopes and deep divisions caused by vaccination as the world grapples with the year. second of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The word vaccine is more than a drug by 2021,” the dictionary – based on its decision on increased interest in the definition of the term – said in a post on its website.
“For many people, the word symbolizes the possibility of a return to the lives we led before the pandemic. But it is also at the heart of debates about personal choice, political parties, regulation professional regulation, school safety, health care inequities, and more.”
Merriam-Webster says the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines requires it to broaden the definition of the word “vaccine,” since the technology triggers an immune response by asking cells to human cells that produce antigens, compared with classical vaccines, which inject a neutralized form. of viruses or antigens.
The word “vaccine” has increased by 601% in definition searches during the year, compared to 2020.
But “the prominence of the word vaccine in our lives … becomes even more apparent when we compare 2021 and 2019, a period when searches for the word increased by 1048%”, Merriam-Webster said.
Vaccines are back in the spotlight once again after the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant, prompting new calls for people in the developed world to get vaccinated or boosted against the virus- withdraw – and make the vaccine more widely available in the developing world.
The World Health Organization has listed the Omicron strain as a “variant of concern”, and countries around the world are now restricting travel from southern Africa, where the new strain was discovered. for the first time and take other new precautions.
In the United States, top government scientist Anthony Fauci on Monday urged everyone to be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine to help protect against serious illness.
“A variant like this, although we don’t know much about it yet, one thing we do know is that vaccinated people do a lot better than unvaccinated people,” he said. “I strongly recommend boosting now.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
