In the Wall Street Journal, this linguist questions the meaning and history of the word “mutant”, as new variants of Covid-19 spread around the world.
If you fell last Sunday [le 3 janvier] on Dr. Fauci, guest on a TV show, it is understandable if you had thought for a moment that the best American specialist in infectious diseases had perhaps abused science fiction films.
“We have spotted many cases of this mutant in the country, it is undeniably present”, declared Fauci in the show Meet the Press on NBC. Before bidding on This Week on ABC: “This mutant has already arrived here in the United States. It’s perfectly documented. ”
The mutant Doctor Fauci talks about [immunologue et conseiller Covid-19 du futur président Joe Biden] did not come out of the pages of a comic book. It is the new variant of the coronavirus that appeared in the United Kingdom and is rapidly spreading to other countries. Many epidemiologists have found this mutation of the virus to be a more contagious form, although it does not appear to make symptoms worse.
Like this variant, the word “mutant” has evolved and taken on unexpected meanings over the centuries. It comes from Latin Mutants, meaning “to change”, from the verb move. It is also on this root that
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