"COVID" as a distinct event is over, it is now an endemic disease. Using it in the past tense is reasonable and largely correct
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While different people will have different ideas about what timeframe is included in “during COVID”, I suspect that more than 95% of people understand that period as in the past (even while many, if not all, also understand that COVID is a real disease that still exists).
sep 3, 2025, 5:15 am • 9 0 • view
So by this definition, we're currently in a pandemic for the flu and 100-200 other common global respiratory viruses? The wikipedia article's definition really differs. It means it's at a constant baseline level in *some population* but that population might be global
sep 3, 2025, 6:29 pm • 0 0 • view
No, because for those the rates of infection are predictable. The fast mutation of covid isn’t. We’ve had spring waves, summer waves, fall waves, winter waves. If you look at the chart of the wastewater data, flu has a predictable pattern, Covid does not. That’s part of the definition.
sep 3, 2025, 6:43 pm • 1 0 • view
Lol, this happens for the flu and cold viruses too. Just because it might mutate doesn't mean anything You people are so irrational and anxious about this
sep 3, 2025, 7:31 pm • 0 0 • view
mmmmm would you say “during AIDS”
sep 3, 2025, 5:10 am • 0 0 • view
I would probably use the phrasing “during the AIDS crisis” to correctly identify the situation in the 1980s as being very different to that in the 2020s
sep 3, 2025, 5:19 am • 15 0 • view
Ok so you agree that you would not just say “during AIDS.” Why would you avoid that phrasing?
sep 3, 2025, 5:26 am • 1 0 • view
Because the rules of the English language are not particularly regular and the exact way we talk about one thing is not always the way we talk about another
sep 3, 2025, 5:28 am • 7 0 • view
Come on. If people were saying “during the COVID crisis” we’re really going to argue people wouldn’t object?
sep 3, 2025, 5:43 am • 0 0 • view
well COVID isn't AIDS for one
sep 3, 2025, 2:03 pm • 4 0 • view
No because no one else says that phrase so people would be confused
sep 3, 2025, 5:37 am • 6 0 • view
Isn't the REASON it'd be confusing though because talking about endemic diseases in the past tense as though they're a thing that happened in the past that people aren't still dealing with today would be a super weird thing to do, so people almost never do that?
sep 3, 2025, 6:34 pm • 1 0 • view
We do say “during the AIDS epidemic”. There’s an appropriate time period people understand colloquially to mean “when peopler were dying of it left and right because of a government that abandoned them and did nothing about it.”
sep 3, 2025, 5:19 am • 6 0 • view
Ok so you agree that you would not just say “during AIDS.” Why would you avoid that phrasing?
sep 3, 2025, 5:26 am • 0 0 • view
Yes if referring to the AIDS epidemic (in wealthy nations) I would assume you were talking about the 80s/90s when HIV was a death sentence and not a chronic disease. The eras are very diff and not recognizing when a crises has ended will create compassion fatigue when the next crisis emerges.
sep 3, 2025, 6:33 am • 3 0 • view
I can say the most technically accurate version “during the height of the COVID pandemic” and it won’t change the fact that everyone else says “during COVID”. You think you’re arguing with the OP when what you’re arguing with is the nature of language. It’s messy and imperfect.
sep 3, 2025, 5:55 am • 6 0 • view
I get the argument that people should correct people speaking on large public platforms but also…prescriptivist linguism is historically a losing battle. I’d rather not get bogged down on that and go after the bastards who are gutting funding for mRNA vaccines.
sep 3, 2025, 5:57 am • 5 0 • view
What's wild is that for about the first six months of it (depending on if you start in Dec 2019), we were mostly referring to it as "corona virus." I remember there was an article about Rancho Gordo beans and it had the royal corona on it as a visual pun about the order during the pandemic.
sep 3, 2025, 4:46 am • 3 0 • view
The post you quoted, it reminds me of my 4th grade teacher insisting we call them "Post-It Notes" instead of sticky notes. People know what we mean by "sticky notes."
sep 3, 2025, 4:47 am • 3 0 • view
He's a science journalist telling producers and hosts of podcasts and outlets that would likely consider themselves to be journalistic to be more journalistic. Say whatever you want, he wasn't talking to you.
sep 3, 2025, 5:51 am • 0 0 • view
Yep. People are referring to a lot of different things when they use this reference. Some of us, we're saying "back during covid" cuz we are talking about a time when govts and businesses were forced to act like it mattered. This language and mask policing freakout shit helps no one.
sep 3, 2025, 4:23 pm • 1 0 • view
it'd be like saying "at the height of the flu"
sep 3, 2025, 4:35 am • 7 0 • view