When should you self-isolate, self-quarantine or social-distance?

There is a raft of language around the coronavirus pandemic, which reflects new situations that require a whole different everyday vocabulary. Beware of confusion, however – not all these terms are what they seem.

Social distancing, refers to creating physical distance between people rather than preventing social connection. On the contrary, it is more important than ever to connect with colleagues, friends and family for emotional support – even if you are physically separated from them. Fortunately, this can happen virtually.

There is a distinction between self-isolation and self-quarantine. The CDC offers a clear definition and protocols.

A lighter approach is to self-monitor, which includes regularly checking your temperature and watching for signs of a respiratory illness, such as fever, cough or shortness of breath, while limiting – but not excluding – interaction with others. Again, the CDC offers useful guidance.

So if you are sick, you self-isolate. If you are at high risk of becoming sick because you were in direct contact with someone who is sick, you self-quarantine. Finally, if you attended an event where someone sitting at the other side of the room later became sick, you self-monitor.

If you are an asymptomatic carrier, you show no signs of illness, yet you can pass on the virus to others. This is to be distinguished from an incubatory carrier, who transmits pathogens immediately following infection but prior to developing symptoms.

And who is “patient zero”? In any given country, this is the first confirmed local case of the disease. Unfortunately, COVID-19 patient zeros can be incubatory or asymptomatic carriers of the pathogens, so tracing them is incredibly difficult.

Which leads to the word, pathogen. Some might refer to pathogens as “nasty bugs” – a useful (but unscientific) umbrella term that includes viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. COVID-19 is the disease resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Since the current outbreak, there has been widespread commentary from epidemiologists, who measure epidemiological outcomes. These are the disease outcomes relative to the population at risk. So when they talk about flattening the curve, they are referring to slowing the spread of the virus through public health measures. Epidemiologists try to predict the outbreak’s peak – when the number of new infections in a single day reaches its highest point – but accuracy is extremely difficult.

Some countries have now imposed lockdowns – an emergency measure that prevents people from leaving or entering an area (or country). It will mean that borders are closed and people are required to stay at home and self-quarantine. A containment zone can be established when a particular area seems to be a COVID-19 hotspot. Large gatherings are barred, but people can still come and go.

In the face of a lockdown, many people have been panic-buying – or stockpiling groceries, masks and hand-sanitizers. While this is dangerous for healthcare workers who need these items most, and unfortunate for the global good if/when it leads to shortages of certain items, it is understandable to want to reasonably prepare for an extended period at home, when illness may prevent you from going shopping.

Coronavirus is not the first pandemic to have swept across the world wreaking havoc and it seems there is precedent for these seismic health events to change cultures and create new language. Novel concepts enter the consciousness and the linguistic frames of reference shift to describe the extraordinary. There is even one instance of an entire national language switching as a result of disease.

In his Biography of the English Language, C.M. Millward describes how after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century, French was adopted in England as the official government language. The demographic that mostly spoke French tended to be the aristocracy. When the Black Death wiped out a large proportion of this group, it contributed to the dwindling use of Norman French across the country. English, however, endured. And the rest is history.