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STILL MORE WORDS OF THE WEEK


Words of this week have all occurred in connection with the Coronavirus directly or its economic consequences indirectly.  Some are defined herein, while others can be easily referenced online.

General terms
  • Bifurcation (a splitting of outcomes along two different paths)
  • Inflection point (think rate of change of the rate of change, when this changes from positive to negative or negative to positive, this is an inflection point. In auto driving, this means changing from accelerating to decelerating or the reverse.)
  • Calculus – Meaning “My strategy for addressing this problem is …. A term rarely used by those who use calculus. In the given sense, the term is mostly used by politicians and other morons. The other meaning of “calculus” is as an advanced mathematical topic.
  • Model – a method, formula, or procedure for typing, addressing, or solving a problem.
  • Cyclical stock
  • Duplicity
  • Gig worker
  • Strategic oil reserve
  • Future oil contracts


Health and disease related
  • Sanitize
  • Disinfectant
  • UV effect
  • Ozone effect
  • Sunlight effect
  • Reproductive number (R0 and pronounced R-naught) - average number of secondary infections from the first infection, i.e. if equal to 2, this means each infected person infects two additional people – on average. It is our current social distancing that seeks to reduce this value.  When it is less than one, the disease fades away. When it's greater than one, the disease spreads. 
  • Herd immunity
  • Core group (for infection)
  • High risk group
  • Age assortative – implying people of the same age associate together mostly. (e.g. child-child, child-parent, but not child-elderly)
  • Epidemiological triangle (host, pathogen, environment)
  • Direct vs Indirect disease transmission
  • Vectorborne transmission


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