2nd sighting of "rona" meme around here. What's its Origin story?

[UTUSN]

The first time was yesterday and I had no idea, did teh Google, which barely got me to figuring out what it meant. Might as well spell it out or will be called out to do so: (Co)rona.

Is it Millennial, or are we Post-Millennial? Am deciding (for myself; my tastes don't apply to anybody else) whether I like it, gives me a bit of fingernails/chalkboard thing so far. Probably here to stay. DU is the cutting edge!

[TDale313]

1. Been hearing it since March

And yeah, it’s slang mostly among young people. “He’s got the ‘Rona”

[soothsayer]

2. Works so well for Rona McDaniels tho

[Rstrstx]

3. Might have something to do with YouTube

Content creators have had their videos de-monetized by YouTube for mentioning the words Covid or corona/coronavirus in their videos so they had to come up with alternative names. Rona is one of the more popular.

[Greybnk48]

4. My 55 year old niece calls it "the 'rona."

She’s from California and has been saying it since March or April. Love her, but not a fan of “the ‘rona.”

[TDale313]

5. Maybe it's a West Coast thing.

I’m from California and hear it a fair amount and have been since March.

[Renew Deal]

8. It's not just west coast.

[Hekate]

6. The cartoonist Lalo, who does a Latino-themed daily comic strip, has been calling it Rona and...

...La Rona for quite awhile.

[LuckyCharms]

7. I have a young (20's) relative who has been calling it that

since the beginning. I think it started with teen people and/or people in their 20's.

[Ms. Toad]

9. A friend of mine (black, in her late 50s/early 60s) has been calling it Rona

since April - perhaps as far back as March.

Every so frequently she shows off her Rona fro on FB. I don't know if it comes from the black community, but I hadn't heard it beyond her facebook page until recently.