The Brief: "The Rona" or "Rona" are colloquial terms that Black social media users gave to the widespread Coronavirus which are now heavily used within younger generations such as Millennials or Gen Zers.

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DEEP DIVE

Black Twitter users (Millennials and Gen Zers) are beginning to refer to the Coronavirus as “The Rona” or “Rona” just like how many people have done in the past by developing slang terms for illnesses.

These two shortened identifiers for the Coronavirus are a byproduct of social media and how it’s users tend to transform longer medical terms into shorter ones that are more digestible for younger audiences. Typically used on Twitter, the term “Rona” has a more lighthearted tone for social media users rather than the more daunting Coronavirus or COVID-19 medical terminology.

“The Rona/Rona” in action:

Boomer Remover” is another term that refers to “the Rona”: