#Twitter is hilariously struggling to pronounce the new coronavirus treatment

“#Twitter is hilariously struggling to pronounce the new coronavirus treatment”

The world is racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine so we can go outside without people dying, with Pfizer’s recent trial looking particularly promising. In the meantime, U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co. has developed an experimental antibody that could at least help treat patients exhibiting mild symptoms, preventing them from worsening to the point they need hospitalisation.

Authorised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the treatment is a hopeful step forward in the ongoing battle against the coronavirus pandemic. This is exciting enough, but what has really caught Twitter’s attention is the medicine’s delightful name: bamlanivimab.

As many on the internet have noted, it looks a lot like a well-known earworm from African-American work song “Black Betty,” popularised through covers by Ram Jam and Spiderbait.

whoa black betty
bamlanivimab
whoa black betty
bamlanivimab
black betty had a virus
bamlanivimab
damn thing was inside us
bamlanivimab https://t.co/7axKjmQfJV

— adrian 2: still postin’ (@CrawfinUSA) November 10, 2020

Scientist 1: “What are we going to call this drug?”

*Black Betty plays softly in the background*

Scientist 2: “….I have an idea.” https://t.co/wKxUR0kjoS

— ??? ???? (@samuel_satt) November 10, 2020

“Black Betty” isn’t the only song the tongue-twisting name has been inserted in. Twitter users have been grappling with bamlanivimab’s complicated appearance, likening it to scat singing, puzzling over its pronunciation, and lamenting at how close it was to a palindrome.

I named the drug bamlanivimab and I worked really hard on the name. It’s my first time naming a drug, so please be nice to me!

— Gabe Delahaye (@gabedelahaye) November 10, 2020

the B in LBGTQ stands for bamlanivimab

— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) November 10, 2020

why the hell would you come this close to a palindrome and choke right at the end??? bamlanivinalmab, motherfuckers https://t.co/gSa8rrfHRX

— Dan Kois (@dankois) November 10, 2020

who put the bam in the bamlanivimab, who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong

— El Chico Del Apartamento 1312 (@StolenVelour_) November 10, 2020

bamlanivimab Bamlanivida bang da bang diggy diggy diggy
Shake the boogie said up jump the boogie https://t.co/Vtps4hH5NU

— John Leavitt ? (@LeavittAlone) November 10, 2020

if you’re lost you can look and you will find me
bamlanivimab

— hingo (@hingo) November 10, 2020

What if it’s only low-cost if you can pronounce bamlanivimab

— Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) November 10, 2020

Bamlanivimab was my father’s name, you bastards

— Emma Berquist (@eeberquist) November 10, 2020

the only thing about bamlanivimab is if it saves your life you must name your firstborn son bamlanivimab or every full moon he will turn into a crow. scientists are working on this

— Sarah Lazarus (@sarahclazarus) November 10, 2020

they could have at least made it a palindrome but no. Bamlanivimab. like a doo wop song gone wrong

— ?????? ???????? (@dodaistewart) November 10, 2020

side effects of bamlanivimab may include rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong, and in rare cases shoo-bop sha wadda wadda yippity boom de boom

— Duncan Carson (@aduncancarson) November 10, 2020

dentist: so how have you been?
me in the dentist chair mid-cleaning: bamlanivimab

— jamie 2.0 (@serbzs) November 10, 2020

“I put my thang down flip it and reverse it, it’s your bamlanivimab, it’s your bamlanivimab” https://t.co/lf37M8t3p7

— Robin Thede (@robinthede) November 10, 2020

? we go together like #bamlanivimab a bop ban boo together forevvaa ?

— Ruchi Fruitwala (@ruchifruitwala) November 10, 2020

It should be stressed that as fun as bamlanivimab is to say, or attempt to say, it is still not a coronavirus vaccine. We still have a long way to go before one is available, so remember to continue wearing your mask, washing your hands, and keeping your distance from others.

By Amanda Yeo