The Economist's Daily Chart published a fascinating set of charts last week tracing elevated dictionary lookups on Merriam Webster's site for various terms that have featured prominently in the Covid-19 discourse. This got us wondering how those same terms have stacked up on television news. The following graphs trace usage of the same terms on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News since the start of this year using data from the Internet Archive's Television News Archive through the Television Explorer.
Epidemic
Pandemic
Quarantine
Self-Isolation
Draconian
Lockdown
Triage
Martial Law
Cancel
Panic
Hoarding
Force Majeure