Editorial: Rat-lickers and Covidiots defy Covid 19 coronavirus caution

A protester holds a placard bearing the words 'Covid is a lie, we are not Covidiots' during a protest against lockdown in downtown Zagreb, Croatia. Photo / AP

Editorial

EDITORIAL

As is often the case in times of upheaval, new words are entering the common vocabulary to communicate the radical change in our conversations.

Many of the official terms associated with the current pandemic have now become everyday vernacular such as Covid (a contraction of coronavirus disease 2019), false positives, clusters, asymptomatic, PPE (personal protective equipment), as well as managed isolation and quarantine (collectively known as MIQ).

Alongside these technical terms are the colloquialisms that have spread, virus-like (if you'll pardon the expression). One of the first of these to emerge in the coronavirus age was "Covidiot".

A Covidiot is a term for a person who doubts the officially accepted version of events, whether it be the origin of Covid-19 or the mortality rate.

A Covidiot will typically be seen on social media, sharing their "research", which disproves whichever contentious directive has been issued at the latest 1pm Government briefing. They may also be seen out and about acting contrary to official advice, motivated by a lack of understanding rather than outright defiance.

Another new word is a spin-off from the rise of Zoom video-conferencing. If "Zumping" sounds awful, that's because it is. It refers to being cut from a relationship via a Zoom call.

One of the newer and more colourful terms is "rat-licker" - slang for someone who would wilfully or carelessly catch or spread disease.

It's a reference to the association between rats and another major pandemic, the bubonic plague or Black Plague, although it is now widely accepted fleas rather than the rodents were carrying the lethal bacteria.

In theory, a rat-licker would have literally carried out the act during the mid-14th century pandemic that swept through Eurasia, North Africa and Europe, although there is no historical record anyone actually did so.

It means a person who is in such vehement denial of the accepted hazards and the best practical precautions that they would purposefully do the opposite.

Rat-licker has quickly gained popularity since August 2020, particularly as a reference to people who refuse to wear masks, stand too close to people in queues or flout basic contact trace instructions.

The Urban Dictionary website defines rat-licker as "a person who refuses ... to take any of the basic precautions to help society prevent an airborne illness during an epidemic".

On the extreme opposite side of the denialist rat-lickers are the epidemic doomsdayers, touting the "coronapocalypse" or even "coronageddon". These are the people with shopping trolleys spilling over with toilet rolls every time the Government calls an unscheduled press conference.

These people are also said to frequently stay up late watching scary updates from unreputable sources in a practice known as "doomscrolling". The Times' Mark Babarak, refers to this as "an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of dystopian news".

To use that now common-place oxymoron, it might be prudent to "socially distance" yourself from any suspected rat-lickers and Covidiots.

Don't worry about the coronageddonists. They are very busy trying to avoid you.

Keep calm, wash your hands, stay at home and enjoy your coronacation.