COVID-19
As members of a scientific organization, it's important for us to use consistent terms to communicate about COVID-19 and the associated virus.
The virus
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The virus that causes COVID-19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. In nontechnical contexts, the virus responsible for COVID-19 or the COVID-19 virus is acceptable. Similarly, the novel coronavirus, the coronavirus, and the virus can be used as long as it is clear which virus you are referring to.
The disease
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The disease is COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019. For external communications, do not use COVID without -19 and do not style it with an initial capital letter only (i.e., Covid-19) or all lowercase letters (i.e., covid-19).
The abbreviations
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As with other well-known abbreviations (e.g., HIV and AIDS), PATH does not require COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 to be defined at first use.
COVID-19 in combination with other words
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When combining COVID-19 with other words, use a second hyphen—for example, COVID-19-related symptoms.
long COVID
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New, recurring, or ongoing health problems that can last for weeks or months after infection with SARS-CoV-2 are called long COVID.
Coronaviruses
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Be careful in your writing as there are multiple coronaviruses; for example, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is caused by Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV).