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"pandemic" is a big scary word that mostly describes the global distribution of a disease. The classical definition includes nothing about population immunity,
by maerF0x0 6y ago
"pandemic" is a big scary word that mostly describes the global distribution of a disease. The classical definition includes nothing about population immunity, virology or disease severity.
Ebola was/is a big deal for the past 45 years off an on.
- pmiller2 6y agoYep. Let’s not forget HIV. We’ve had several flu pandemics in the past 100 years, as well.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> Ebola was/is a big deal for the past 45 years off an on. But never a pandemic (if Ebola retained it's deadliness and gained characteristics that allowed it to become a pandemic that would be, to put it mildly, very bad.)
- maerF0x0 6y agocorrect, that's what I'm trying to point out is that pandemic has nothing to do with severity. But when the media says "pandemic" the public reacts to an implied high severity