The Syllable Scramble: Deciphering the Linguistic Maze of Modern Medicine
It has been a few weeks since the medical community announced two pivotal breakthroughs in the ongoing battle against Covid-19. Yet, since that initial flurry of headlines, they have largely vanished from the airwaves. As someone who has spent a decade navigating the fast-paced world of broadcast news, I have a working theory as to why: the names are an absolute nightmare to pronounce.
I’ve watched seasoned colleagues stumble, and while the Prime Minister took a fair bit of flack for fumbling the announcement, I find it hard to hold a grudge this time. Even with a deliberate “run-up” and a focused breath, words like tocilizumab and sarilumab remain stubbornly resistant to the human tongue and nearly impossible to lodge in one’s long-term memory.
