Coronavirus: A pandemic or not?
March 10th, 2020“………….The WHO says that since there’s still uncertainty about the disease’s impact, most countries still have only a few cases, and containment is not yet hopeless, the word “pandemic” isn’t appropriate yet. But many observers have disagreed with the WHO’s decision……… The World Health Organization defines an epidemic as “the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness … clearly in excess of normal expectancy.” The CDC defines it as “an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected” in a region.……
According to A Dictionary of Epidemiology, the standard reference for epidemiologists, a pandemic is “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people.”
A “pandemic” disease sounds much scarier than a mere “outbreak.” But it’s important to remember that “pandemic” refers to how many parts of the world are dealing with an elevated rate of the disease — and, in theory, says nothing about how serious the disease is………”
