In their inter-personal experiences, I wonder if anyone else is noticing that covid is becoming the new C-word ?
Of course, "cancer" is the original C-word; sometimes called "the big C" (in London at least), it is a word you don't use around sick people until (i) you have to or (ii) with relief, you can declare, "Thank God, it's not cancer!"
I noticed how people are now treating the word "covid" the same way. A friend of mine felt ill recently - temperature, stomach pains, headache. More than in the past, we were attentive to his symptoms: lots of "Hope you feel better tomorrow" with no mention of what was looming in everyone's mind: covid. Luckily, in a couple of days he was ok again and we were free of our self-censorship, "Haha! I was worried for a minute, I thought it might be covid." I guess this is the new normal: a new unspoken dread with everybody who gets a cold.
