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What Are The Worst Covid Clichés To Avoid In Your Writing?
Nobody is talking about two that should be retired
In these uncertain times, could we kill the Covid clichés?
Apparently not.
Americans want to reach for a quarantini when they hear clichés like “the new normal,” “flattening the curve,” and “in these uncertain times,” research suggests. Experts have noted that some shopworn phrases aren’t just empty but inaccurate, including “social distancing” (which usually means physical distancing) and “Covid-friendly” events (which have the potential to turn unfriendly).
But as the pandemic has gone on, the media have inverted the journalistic tradition of looking for new ways to say old things: They keep finding old ways to describe the new things that are happening. If you were keeping count of the retread expressions, you might say we’re nearing a linguistic “grim milestone,” a phrase that has come on strongly in 2022.
What’s odd is that two serial offenders are absent from the lists you’ll find If you search for terms like “worst Covid clichés.” They are: “This will be no panacea” and “There is no need to panic.”
