5 ms·

Then that definition is garbage. How bad a disease is does not depend on how bad you expect it to be.

• Fomite 5y ago
  "Epidemic" isn't "Is a disease bad?". It's "Is this disease occurring at a level above expected?" You can have very serious endemic diseases - malaria is one example. But "Occurring to a level above expected" is an important piece of information all its own - for example, five cases of Smallpox, while only five cases, is something of an emergency, whereas five cases of influenza is not a serious crisis.
  • anoncake 5y ago
    Yes, that's the technical definition, which no layperson cares about.
    • Fomite 5y ago
      The comment I was replying to was talking about renaming diseases, doing extensive testing, and declaring a pandemic. That's all based on the people who would use the technical definition.