The current global coronavirus crisis has not only brought to the light grave errors, declarations and denials of “authoritative” experts: doctors, biologists, etc. (for example, over the usefulness of face masks) but also important problems which the Spanish have with the English language.
In this flood of information, as profuse as it is questionable, English terms such as “recovered”, which means “cured”, have been translated as “hospitalised” and, despite several reports, only a few newspapers have corrected themselves. These articles have been published, spreading false information to an audience already very worried by the evolution of the situation.
Errors like that highlight a problem already known to the worldwide media, of which the Spanish media is no exception: the lack of professional translators in this field. Specialised press still relies on machine translators which are absolutely ineffective in medical or scientific contexts, where the high quality work of professionals across various fields is paramount to nip disinformation in the bud. Any published document should be rigorously translated by native translators who are accustomed to working with medical terminology.
At Clinter we always recommend trusting a team of specialised translators, professionals capable of overcoming any linguistic barrier.
Furthermore, by following this link, you will find the linguistic recommendations published by Fundeu on terms related to COVID-19, which we find very interesting.
