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    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTTaylor Swift Named Her New Song \u2018Patient Zero.\u2019 Where Does the Term Originate?\u201cPatient zero\u201d has long been associated with virus outbreaks and fictional health investigations. It was coined in the 1980s, by accident.Listen \u00b7 6:19 min Share full articleTaylor Swift\u2019s new single, \u201cPatient Zero,\u201d drops on Friday as part of an expanded version of an album she released nearly a year ago.Credit...Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesBy Emmett LindnerSept. 24, 2026See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Sept. 25: This article was updated to include information about the song \u201cPatient Zero\u201d after is official release.The arrival of new Taylor Swift music has a tendency to send fans and internet sleuths on a quest for meanings hidden in her lyrics. The pop idol\u2019s release on Friday of four new songs was no different.In a social media post announcing the release, she highlighted one track, \u201cPatient Zero.\u201d Articles were dedicated this week to piecing together clues about the song.But the term \u201cpatient zero\u201d has its own complex history. It has become part of the cultural lexicon, used in films and novels about dangerous pathogens. Its usage became even more common during the Covid-19 pandemic, and during a recent outbreak of hantavirus.The term is largely viewed as a misnomer in the medical and science communities, and it can invite stigma and alarm.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHere\u2019s how it was created decades ago by accident, how its usage has changed over time, and a hint at what Swift may actually be getting at.What is the origin story of \u2018Patient Zero?\u2019\u201cPatient zero\u201d has its roots in the AIDS crisis, when health investigators were trying to track the early spread of the virus in the 1980s. A study identified one French Canadian man, Ga\u00e9tan Dugas, as the link between several California cases. The researchers labeled him as \u201cPatient O,\u201d short for \u201cOut of California.\u201dBut other researchers began to misread the letter \u201cO\u201d as \u201czero,\u201d and many mistook the man at the center of the cases as \u201cpatient zero.\u201d\u201cThe phrase \u2018patient zero\u2019 has been deeply consequential for numerous individuals who\u2019ve been caught up in its suggestive pointing,\u201d said Richard A. McKay, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who is also the author of \u201cPatient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic.\u201dWhat was the effect?Researchers and health officials say that finding the origins of a pathogen is critical to better understanding and controlling its spread. But when the public is already on edge during an outbreak \u2014 or worse, a global pandemic \u2014 a focus on a \u201cpatient zero\u201d can cause alarm, create a deep stigma tied to the individual or fuel scapegoating of the group to which a person belongs.Editors\u2019 PicksStream These 5 Movies and Shows Before They Leave Netflix in OctoberTaylor Swift Named Her New Song \u2018Patient Zero.\u2019 Where Does the Term Originate?In Backyard Ultramarathons, the Race Goes On Until Everyone Gives UpAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTake Dugas. He was once blamed for starting the entire American AIDS epidemic and the more than 61,000 deaths it had caused by the end of 1988. The media latched onto the idea and vilified him, with The New York Post even describing Dugas in a headline as \u201cThe Man Who Gave Us AIDS.\u201d\u201cThe desire to pinpoint a beginning also leapfrogs over the ability to support that with observations and data,\u201d McKay said. \u201cThe transmission dynamics of epidemics are a lot messier than what the story and the idea of a \u2018patient zero\u2019 is seeking to find.\u201dDugas, who died in 1984, was exonerated 10 years ago by a team led by Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona through a genetic analysis of stored blood samples and historical detective work.How has \u2018patient zero\u2019 changed over time?McKay, while writing his book, often looked to \u201cMosby\u2019s Medical Dictionary,\u201d a comprehensive reference. \u201cPatient zero\u201d appeared for the first time in the book\u2019s 1998 edition, and was not removed until its 2017 edition, he said.That did not mean the term had been phased out of public, nonexpert use. During the coronavirus pandemic it seemed to be uttered everywhere as people locked themselves indoors and health officials sought the origin of the virus.Even Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, said in a 2020 social media post that he and his wife might have been \u201cpatient zero\u201d in the United States. He later said the post \u201cwas kind of a joke.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe term is \u201cmore self referential now, and also in the way that outbreaks are reported in the media and in fictional representations,\u201d McKay said.\u201cThere are a lot of people that don\u2019t understand the history, and reach for the phrase because it sounds like what they think it should mean,\u201d McKay added.But why is it the name of a Taylor Swift song?It\u2019s impossible to say whether Swift knows the entire history, but the lyrics appear to frame the singer as \u201cpatient zero\u201d for the turmoil caused by a former lover. In the song, she seems to speak to a recent partner of her old paramour, empathizing with the tumult.\u201cIf you\u2019re sick of him, I got you, I was patient zero,\u201d she sings on the track. An official upload of the song on Swift\u2019s YouTube channel had more than one million views 10 hours after its release on Friday morning.Before the song\u2019s release, Swifties were quick to point to a 2024 Los Angeles Times column by Amy Kaufman about Swift\u2019s whirlwind romance with her now husband, Travis Kelce.In describing her cultural significance, Kaufman wrote that Swift was \u201cpatient zero for emotional contagion,\u201d referring to the empathy that the pop star elicits from her fans.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHave other songs used \u2018Patient Zero?\u2019The phrase has become so common that it is not readily associated with some of the connotations of its history. The 2017 song \u201cPatient Zero\u201d by the singer Aimee Mann depicts an idealistic Hollywood newcomer getting worn down by fame.And the Swift song, along with the article that might have inspired it, have adopted their own interpretations of the two words.The term moves \u201crapidly and easily between epidemiology, to news media to common figure of speech,\u201d McKay said. \u201cThis is perhaps a natural evolution.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-24T18:38:54+00:00",
    "author_name": "Emmett Lindner",
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    "ai_excerpt": "Taylor Swift's new song 'Patient Zero' has sparked interest in the term's complex history. Coined by accident during the AIDS crisis, 'patient zero' is often a misnomer that can cause stigma.",
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