It is amazing how Covid19 has changed our lives. It's been with us for almost a year and we have adapted to wear masks, clean our hands compulsively, avoid touching other people, working/ teaching online or semi-online with windows and doors open (almost frozen) etc.
Language has changed and adapted too, we have got used to a medical and technical jargon that some moths ago was completely unknown.
I have decided that it would be interesting to summarize some of the most commmon words and expressions that are here to stay.
I must thank Oxford and Cambridge blogs for their useful posts on it.
Some of the words you see in the photo above are quite common nowadays, but I thought it could be great to know some others that are also present in the news we listen to or read everyday.
Referring to people we can talk about.....
(a)symptomatic (adjective): showing symptoms or not of a particular disease - She had no idea
her husband had coronavirus because he was asymptomatic.
Carrier(noun)= portador: a person or animal that transmits a disease to others, whether
suffering from it themselves or not - People who are asymptomatic can still
be carriers.
It is important to track those people to avoid virus spreading and get immunity...
Contact tracing(noun)= rastreo: identification and
monitoring of people who may have had contact with an infectious person - By insisting on strict
contact tracing as soon as someone was potentially infected, they managed to
control the spread of the disease.
Droplets (noun)= aerosoles : the spray produced when
people cough or sneeze, and which can spread diseases - Health care personnel wear protective
clothing to guard against the disease carried in droplets
when infected people sneeze or cough.
Herd immunity (noun)= inmunidad de rebaño: an indirect protection from
a disease resulting from a large percentage of the population gaining immunity
(either through vaccination or through recovering from the disease) - This
virus is unlike the seasonal flu because there is currently no vaccine or herd
immunity.
Not to get infected it is important to have the correct protection....
Personal protective
equipment (PPE)
(noun)= EPI: special clothing, headgear, goggles, masks and other garments that
shield people from injury or infection. - Much of the PPE
worn by doctors and nurses has to be worn once only and destroyed after use.
Vaccine(noun)/ˈvæksiːn/: a substance used to protect
humans and animals from a disease- A vaccine for
cholera was invented in 1879.
You could be tested with a PCR test using a swab (hisopo) or with anantibodies / antigen test (test de anticuerpos).
If you are not lucky enough and you are infected you can have some of these symptoms: rash ( erupciones) sore (dolores)
vomiting, headache, fever ( fiebre), fatigue, cough ( tos) chills (escalofríos),
breathless ( problemas respiratorios)
Some governments have taken measures such as curfews (toques de queda), lockdowns (confinamientos) or restrictive timetables, but please try to avoid panicbuying (buying large quantities of
particular products because of fears of shortages) or stockpiling ( store large quanties of stuff)
If you want to know more or practice with this vocabulary, I recommend you to watch the following video
or read the following blog by Oxford with an interesting post by Janet Phillips
In this strange and uncertain year we are living we haven't been able to celebrate Halloween properly, so thinking about possible ways to learn something related to it, I guessed we could do some ghostly and witchy idioms. So if you are ready, off we go......
TO GHOST SOMEONE: to ignore someone's messages or calls trying to avoid that person
The action is called "ghostling"
ex: He has been ghosted by his girlfriend, he never answers her calls
TO HAVE THE GHOST OF A CHANCE: to have the slightest possibility of something.
ex: he didn't have the ghost of a chance to win the race, he had got injured
TO GIVE UP THE GHOST "Tirar la toalla" : when you stop trying because you know it is useless and you won't succeed.
ex: After several attempts for a vaccine, he gave up the ghost.
GHOST WRITER " un negro": a writer who does the work but doesn't get the credit.
ex: she got lots of money for the book shepublished, but her ghost writer was discovered
TO WORK THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT " hacer turno de noche" : to work from 12:00 till 8:00 at night
ex: She was waiting for her husband to return from working his graveyard shift.
DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVE: When someone does something even when they know it will cause them problems.
ex: when she rejected the job she knew she was digging her own grave.
AS COLD AS A WITCH'S CARESS: "tan frío como un muerto" something which is very cold, chilling
Ex: Her feet were as cold as a witch's caress
A WITCH'S BREW or BROTH: " mezcla explosiva" a fearsome mixture
Ex: drugs and alcohol are witches' brew
TO GO ON A WITCH HUNT: to blame or pursue somebody for their ideas or actions
Ex: There was a witch hunt for comunists in USA
TO PUT A SPELL ON SOMEONE: "estar hechizado" when you are fascinated, or influenced by someone.
ex: Ariadna Grande has put a spell on you
TO SPILL YOUR GUTS " desahogarse, soltarlo todo, escupirlo todo"when you are holding a secret and people want you to tell it.
ex: Her mum wanted to know everything, so she spilt her guts and told her
TO PLAY THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. " hacer de abogado del diablo"someone who will argue against an idea or suggestion only to get it validated by them.
Ex: she played the devil's advocate when she discussed women's rights
TO BE DEAD ON YOUR FEET. "no poder sostenerse de cansancio" you are so tired that you can even stand up
I hope you like it and learn them. so go ahead and use these spooky idioms.
These days that we have to stay indoors due to the Covid19 crisis made me think about other epidemics that human beings have had to struggle with in history.
Some people think they won't stand it and it will definitely change their daily lives. It has always been that way, but when it's over and time goes by we forget about it.
Human beings are wise and tough.
This is a new age, full of technologies, people can help people on line, but it can also be a nightmare because of all messages you get in a day: encouraging ones, fake news, criticisms, memes about everything and so on. It could be a time for reflection, for keeping close to your beloved ones, to go back to forgotten things and to enjoy with small things.
For weeks we have heard about epidemics and pandemics and at this stage we know that a pandemic is a wider concept in time, place and amount.
What happened in other epidemics/pandemics, how did people cope with their routines?
The outbreaks of Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, influenza, ebola or even HIV/AIDS have been some of the most brutal killers in human history. Let's have a look at some of them.
ANTONINES PLAGUE (165 AD)
It was a plague similar to measles that was bought from Mesopotamia by Roman soldiers, it killed around 5 million people in Rome, mainly soldiers.
JUSTINIAN PLAGUE ( 541-542 AD)
It was the first known bubonic plague, spread though the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean ports killing a quarter of the population, especially Costantinopla whose population was almost wiped out.
THE BLACK DEATH (1346-1353)
It was again a bubonic plague killing between 75-200 million people, it started in Asia and spread though the silk route to three continents: Asia, Europe, Africa because of the flies carried by black rats travelling in ships. The cause was the Yersinia pestisbacterium, people got infected and died in a few days. People considered it a punishment by God and it gave bloom to fanatical and religious prosecutions of jews, pilgrims, romani people etc who were accused of spreading it and were killed. People were confined in their houses and they couldn't even bury their relatives as it was deadly contagious. It had a recurrence in different centuries with serious impact on demografy, the last one in Madagascar in 2014.
Burial of plague victims in Tournai
THE THIRD CHOLERA PANDEMIC ( 1852-1860)
There have been seven cholera pandemics, but the one in the 19th century was the worst. It started in the Ganges river in India and spread all over Asia, Europe, North America and Africa. It killed around 1 million people and originated because of contaminated water. They occurred after wars, civil unrest, or natural disasters, when water and food supplies become contaminated with Vibrio cholerae. The last outbreaks were in 2014 in developing countries such as Congo, Ghana and others.
New York City 1832
FLU PANDEMICS ( 1889-1890)
There have been several flu pandemics in the world, the first one, called "Russian flu" or "Asiatic Flu", was caused by the virus subtype H3N8 and started simultaneously in Asia, Canada and Greenland, it spead rapidly in cities because of the growth of population, killling children and elderly people. The worst outbreak was in 1918, it killed around 20-50 million people, mainly young adults and people with weak immune sytems. it was called "Spanish Flu" beause it hit hard in our country infecting even the king Alfonso XIII. World War I didn't make things better at that time. In this century we have had more outbreaks: The Bird/Avian Flu or Influenza A (2009) which started in poultry and birds and spread to humans causing pneumonia. There are vaccines, but the virus mutates easily each year depending specially on environmental conditions.
Emergency hospital in Kansas, 1918
HIV/AIDS PANDEMICS (2005-2018 PEAK)
First identified in Congo in 1978 it has killed 38 million people but at present it is controlled and there are 37,9 millions of people living with it, becoming a chronicle disease specially in Sub- Saharan Africa. When it started it caused lots of discrimination and social concern because of its early associations with homosexuality. It has meant a radical change in sexual education.“Infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, enabling
people living with H.I.V. to lead long and healthy lives,” the W.H.O.
said.
SAR (Severe Acute reapiratory Syndrome) (2003)
Very close to the Coronavirus pandemics we are suffering right now, it is an animal virus from an uncertain animal, perhaps
bats, that spread to other animals (civet cats) and first infected
humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002. It affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8000 cases in 2003. Symptoms are influenza-like and include fever, malaise, myalgia, headache,
diarrhoea, shivering and dry cough. It was present mainly in Asian countries.
EBOLA (2013-16) The murderous outburst of the Ebola virus (Ebola hemorrhagic fever), that swept through parts of West Africa between 2014 and 2016 killed 11,300 people. This disease, which started in Guinea, showed the difference between the prosperity of the developed countries and that remote developing world of Africa. It affected people and animals but there were imported cases which led to secondary infection of medical workers in other countries.
An additional cause for concern is the apparent ability of the virus to
"hide" in a recovered survivor's body for an extended period of time and
then become active months or years later, either in the same individual
or in a sexual partner. Fortunately a vaccine has been proved to be effective.
In
all of these epidemics we can see discrimination of those who suffered
it or people around them, as we see nowadays in the Covid 19 crisis with
the Chinese or Japanese citizens, even now when it's hitting hard in Spain, Spaniards living or travelling abroad are discriminated. It is very important that we try to stay safe for us and the others, to follow the regulations to prevent the disease and be empathic.
Sources: Master's Public Health online. Wikipedia. World Health Organization.
Every year we have a reason to celebrate Women´s Day. This year the United Nations Theme is:
"Generation Equality: Realizing
Women’s Rights for an equal future”
The path hasn't been easy and women are gaining rights little by little, but to keep the fight it's good to know some facts in history when things were not so easy for women.
August 18th-29th 1907: Congress of 2nd Socialist International: Debating women's vote
February 29th 1908: first Official Day held by Socialist Party in Chicago, followed by women strikes
March 26th 1911: 126 women killed in a factory in New York.
March 8th 1917: Russian women on strike and workers protest
December 16th 1977: United Nations declares March 8th as the official Day.
November 19th 1933: Women could vote for the first time in Spain.
Until 1978 women needed a man's permission to open a bank account, to work or to study at university.
At the beginning ot the 20th century Women weren't allowed to wear troussers, they couldn't show their legs or arms and were obligued to wear a hat. ( for more information on restrictive fashion for women see the post in this blog)
Until 1981 women couldn't get their passport or get a driving license without their father or husband permission in Spain.
Anticonceptive pills were illegal until 1978.
We have gained rights but there's a lot to do, we have to keep fighting for equality, don't you think?
