But there’s also the debates regarding policy, politics and political affiliation. One is the science story, which is this remarkable speed with which the vaccines were developed.
“It really represents two different stories. “This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, to the Associated Press. The change from the pre-pandemic days of 2019 is even more stark, said the dictionary maker, with searches for the word soaring by 1,048%.ĭebate about the distribution of vaccines, mandates for their use and their efficacy have driven the increase, the company said.
The choice of word of 2021 was a seemingly obvious one for the US publisher, which said searches for “vaccine” on its website increased by 601% compared with last year, amid a broad rollout of vaccinations for Covid-19.
