Linguistic diversity, pathogen protection, and COVID-19 disparity

Abstract

Social distancing is a concept adapted on modern society’s understanding of infectious diseases, but there may be an additional mechanism restricting the transmission of airborne pathogens in early human evolution. Linguistic diversity may be an ancient mechanism of social distancing and could explain, at least partially, the variability of COVID-19 infection rates among the different ethnic groups within the same region. A shared common language could break the traditional barrier of linguistic diversity and promote pandemics. This hypothesis suggests that human linguistic behavior could have a significant impact on group’s immunity and survival. Linguistic distance should be considered in pandemic research and control. Future study is warranted to investigate the spread of infectious diseases through shared language and the advantage of linguistic diversity in the prevention of infectious diseases.