needles SINKING into flesh

[darkoshi]

Why must so many news reports about COVID-19 include video clips of vaccine needles being pushed into and pulled out of arms? I'm only a little needlephobic (I avert my gaze when getting shots) and a little bothered when I see those videos. But I imagine many people are a lot more disturbed by seeing it, and might avoid watching the news because of it? Seeing all those needles may be adding to their anxiety about getting vaccinated instead of relieving it.

..

Another thing that oddly irritates me is hearing or reading the British term for it, "jab". The word "jab" makes me think of 2 friends walking down the street, and one of them giving the other a friendly shove of an elbow in the side. (Why do I associate it with that? Dunno.) So when I hear it used about the vaccine, it sounds like an attempt to downplay the fact that it's a needle piercing your skin. It sounds like a word you'd say to a small child to keep them from being afraid of it.

I have this reaction even though I know that's simply the term used in Britain and not a euphemism. And I know the word "shot" doesn't really describe an injection better than "jab".

WSJ has this intriguing-sounding article, but it requires a subscription to read: ‘Jab’: A British Term for a Covid-19 Shot, but Born in the U.S.A.

The newly imported name for a vaccination actually originated on this side of the Atlantic ...
It might not be the most important point of contention in the pandemic era, but a British-style, three-letter word for a vaccination shot has proved irksome to many Americans: “jab.”

So I'm not the only American irritated by that word?

Here I found a screenshot of the article on twitter.

Hah, so just like that flu of 1918, the word "jab" started in the U.S., spread out in Europe, and then came back.

..
Damn:
SC tops entire country for COVID case rate as hospital reports record COVID patient count

Comments

[marahmarie]

Thinking of a recent-past COVID post title of mine: "Nabbed your jab?" and cringing. In all fairness I chose it because a) the word rhymes with "nab" and b) I interchange British English with US English (and French) fairly freely.

Jab sort of evokes sword-fighting to me (though not so much a shove in the elbow) before getting stabbed with a needle comes to mind, so I can see what you're saying (almost like poking someone - ah: "jabbed an eye out with his finger"). To me, though, jab requires something metal, be it needle or sword, or say a writing implement ("jabbed myself with a pen"). Interesting the word started over here.

[darkoshi]

It was a good rhyme. Hmmm, "Got your shot? Nabbed your jab?" ...It's harder to think of things that rhyme with vaccine and injection :)

Per the dictionary definition, "jab" makes more sense for a needle than for an elbow. Maybe I'll start using the term someday, but for now it still ... gah, now I'm starting to think of a needle in my arm every time I think the word!

[marahmarie]

Oh, my. I'm the kind who can just think of the needle going in and feel the pinch, so I can also feel that.

...It's harder to think of things that rhyme with vaccine and injection :)

OK try me:

"Seen your vaccine?"
"Injected and protected?" (OK, had to switch tense, still inexact)
"Reflection after injection?" (inexact)

Inject- has no exact rhymes, it seems.

[darkoshi]

Not bad! :)

[marahmarie]

Thanks, I tried :-)

[darkoshi]

I thought of another good one now:
"Reject the infection; get your injection"

also building on the others:
"Get your injection; protection from infection"

[marahmarie]

Ooooh I like these, though I'm also shortening them for added punch:
"Infection protection from injection"
"Infection rejection via injection" (though with Delta breakthrough infections, not so sure about that now)
Passing COVID along to others (or thinking/worrying/wondering if you did, regardless of vaccine status):
"Infection projection"

Can never resist some good rhyming :-)