The phrase "social distancing" has lept from epidemiological obscurity to household name over the past 30 days as the Coronavirus has continued to spread throughout the world. The timeline below shows total mentions of the phrase on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News since the start of this year. The phrase first appears on Feb 2nd, followed by mentions on Feb 6th and 8th and then disappears again until Feb 25th and has been mentioned several times a day in the weeks since, rising sharply over the last few days, with CNN the biggest user.
Looking to online news, we can see a smattering of articles in early January, followed by a burst around January 22-24th, a surge on January 31st and February 13th and then a global acceleration starting February 24th, similar to television, reaching a peak on March 10th and continuing steady-state the last 48 hours as it became an administration talking point.
