Disease management terms like ‘elimination’ and ‘eradication’ have been used in press conferences and media coverage since the start of COVID-19. 

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While these terms seem familiar, they are technical public health terms which mean something very specific in an infectious disease context – and misuse of the terms can be at best confusing, or at worst, misleading.

“A lot of the confusion comes from these terms being thrown around – sometimes interchangeably,” says Associate Professor Anita Heywood, infectious disease epidemiologist at UNSW Medicine.