Mar 17, 2020
Q: WHO declared pandemic! Does this mean that a particularly vicious and/or deadly virus or bacteria is out there to get us?
A: No. Pandemic is declared when a disease occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.
Q: What is the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of pandemic?
A: A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a NEW disease.
Q: So, does it have anything to do with severity of the disease?
A: No. It only describes geographic spread!
Q: Is there a certain number of countries needed to get affected before WHO declares epidemic or pandemic?
A: No. It is arbitrary. For instance:
SARS 2002: 8,096 people in 29 countries were affected
H5N1 Avian Flu 2003: 861 people in 18 countries were affected
H1S1 Swine Flu 2009: 1,632,258 people in 214 countries were affected
MERS 2012: 2,519 people in 27 countries were affected
H7N9 New Avian Flu 2013: 1,568 in 3 countries were affected
COVID-19 2019: >100,000 in >100 countries are affected
Q: So, who decides, if infection an outbreak, epidemic or pandemic?
A: Bureaucrats at WHO
Q: How many pandemics are ongoing now?
A: Two: HIV and COVID-19