COVID-19 or Covid-19? A Quick Survey.

The LA Times continues to use all caps for COVID-19.Kevin Drum

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How is the American press referring to COVID-19? Here’s a quick, semi-random survey:

  • New York Times: Covid-19
  • Washington Post: covid-19
  • Wall Street Journal: Covid-19
  • LA Times: COVID-19
  • USA Today: COVID-19
  • CNN: Covid-19
  • Fox: COVID-19
  • ABC: COVID-19
  • NBC: COVID-19
  • CBS: COVID-19
  • AP Style: COVID-19
  • Politico: Covid-19
  • Stat: Covid-19
  • San Francisco Chronicle: COVID-19
  • Time: COVID-19

Among these outlets, the score is 9-6 in favor of keeping it all caps. Mother Jones generally follows AP style, so it’s all caps for us too.

In case you’re wondering, British style is to use uppercase for acronyms that are pronounced as separate letters when spoken but lowercase for acronyms that are pronounced as words when spoken. So NASA is Nasa and COVID is Covid, while FBI is FBI and USA is USA.

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And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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