“The illness has affected nearly every aspect of life.”

by Rachael Rettne

“The year 2020 was defined by the coronavirus pandemic, arguably the worst pandemic the world has seen in 100 years. COVID-19 has caused more than 75 million cases and 1.6 million deaths worldwide as of mid-December. The illness has affected nearly every aspect of life, from work and school to everyday activities like getting groceries, and even our wardrobes.

“Here are just some of the ways COVID-19 changed the world in 2020.

“A number of new words and phrases entered the general lexicon in 2020. We were told we need to “social distance,” or stay six feet apart, so that we could “flatten the curve,” or slow the disease’s spread in order to reduce the burden on the healthcare system. People even became familiar with relatively obscure epidemiological terms like the “basic reproduction number” (R0, pronounced R-nought), or the average number of people who catch the virus from a single infected person.”

To read this article at Live Science in its entirety, click here.