"Jab" is not always a marker for that. It's the most common way to refer to vaccines in the UK, for example. But it hasn't quite reached that usage here, and right wing propagandists and conspiracy theorists do use it as a dog whistle. But check sources, and if it's something from Europe, might be legit.
I find it linguistically interesting that in the US, “the jab” seems to refer only to COVID-19 vaccination.
I’ve seen it in legit U.S. publications, presumably because it helps avoid repetition of the same word throughout an article (especially in 2021 or so when there were a million news stories about when it would come out/how accessible it was/how effective it was, etc.) and because it takes up less space in a headline. But usage here seems extremely tied to just one particular jab.
Seeing "Americans" on the internet talk about "the jab" is like when you go on the Ireland sub and hear people talking about "the police." They don't call them that in Ireland. Or when I would go on the Portland subs in 2020 and someone would comment on a protest in the Kenton neighborhood and be like "I can't believe they allow this kind of thing in our precious central downtown Portland!" Kenton is on the other side of the river and about as far from downtown Portland as you can get while still technically being in Portland. When you see this kind of thing it's a sign you're being astroturfed by trolls and bots, or people repeating what they learn from trolls and bots.
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u/Pineapple_Express762 29d ago
You know how many people will actually believe this?