{"id":19992,"date":"2022-01-07T17:58:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T17:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/?p=19992"},"modified":"2025-11-19T17:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T17:24:28","slug":"consumer-health-minute-2021-word-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/consumer-health-minute-2021-word-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Health Minute: 2021 Word of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Merriam-Webster\u2019s word of the year for 2021\u2026.(drum roll)\u2026 Vaccine! Even Oxford\u2019s word for the year is Vax. Surprised by this news?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19993 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/2021-Word-of-the-Year.png\" alt=\"words Vaccine and Vax in yellow capital letters\" width=\"241\" height=\"192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/2021-Word-of-the-Year.png 725w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/2021-Word-of-the-Year-300x239.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Both <a href=\"https:\/\/languages.oup.com\/word-of-the-year\/2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oxford Languages<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/words-at-play\/word-of-the-year\/vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Merriam-Webster<\/a> chose these similar words for similar reasons. The number of lookups was significant and according to Merriam-Webster, those lookups \u201cincreased 601% over the year since 2020\u201d and in August, it jumped by 535%.<\/p>\n<p>It makes sense with the availability of the COVID-19 vaccines along with the bombardment by social media and news stories. This sparked debates in various political, religious, health, and social circles. Just think about how often vaccines were talked about between co-workers, friends, and family.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, there was a need for information. Some great resources for information about vaccines include:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medlineplus.gov\/vaccines.html\">MedlinePlus<\/a> with links to additional vaccine information such as <a href=\"https:\/\/medlineplus.gov\/covid19vaccines.html\">COVID-19 Vaccines<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The CDC provides:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vaccines\/schedules\/\">Vaccination schedules<\/a> for all ages<\/li>\n<li>Information about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/vaccines\/index.html\">COVID-19 vaccines<\/a><\/li>\n<li>And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vaccines\/\">more<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are you a history buff? The National Library of Medicine History of Medicine division has an interesting <a href=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2021\/03\/05\/nlm-collections-tour-vaccines\/\">tour of their historical collections regarding vaccines<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>TED ED has some short lessons on <a href=\"https:\/\/ed.ted.com\/lessons\/how-the-covid-19-vaccines-were-created-so-quickly-kaitlyn-sadtler-and-elizabeth-wayne\">How Do COVID-19 Vaccines Work?<\/a> and one on <a href=\"https:\/\/ed.ted.com\/lessons\/how-do-vaccines-work-kelwalin-dhanasarnsombut\">How Do Vaccines Work?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And maybe you want to know how they\u2019re developed and allocated? The World Health Organization has a series of postings, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/diseases\/novel-coronavirus-2019\/covid-19-vaccines\/explainers\">Vaccines Explained<\/a>. The series includes illustrations and content covering such topics as how they are developed, the manufacturing, and safety.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing more about vaccines can increase our understanding of their role in keeping healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merriam-Webster\u2019s word of the year for 2021\u2026.(drum roll)\u2026 Vaccine! Even Oxford\u2019s word for the year is Vax. Surprised by this news? Both Oxford Languages and Merriam-Webster chose these similar words for similar reasons. The number of lookups was significant and according to Merriam-Webster, those lookups \u201cincreased 601% over the year since 2020\u201d and in August,&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/consumer-health-minute-2021-word-of-the-year\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,457,9],"tags":[232,254,57,193],"class_list":["post-19992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-health","category-consumer-health-minute","category-health-literacy","tag-covid-19","tag-health-information","tag-health-literacy","tag-vaccines"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19992"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20009,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19992\/revisions\/20009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}