Coronavirus: What is a pandemic and why use the term now? - BBC News

The coronavirus outbreak has been labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of cases outside China had increased 13-fold in two weeks. He said he was "deeply concerned" by "alarming levels of inaction".

A pandemic is a disease that is spreading in multiple countries around the world at the same time.

Hours later Italy said all shops except food shops and pharmacies would close.

#BBCOS #BBCOutsideSource

[nimih]

The Pandemic announcement would have been of the highest alert if only we had some sensible people in power. Look at Denmark for example. Zero deaths, yet they imposed a lockdown for 2 weeks. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Ms Frederiksen said: 'This will have huge consequences, but the alternative would be far worse.' Now this is what should be the thought process of everyone. Be proactive, not reactive.

[paulhewitt]

When all this is over and we finally have a grip if it, all the rich countries in the world need to get together and make sure this never happens again. So instead of spending billions on weapons to kill each other, spend that money on hospitals new drugs and research.

[bryanlo]

apart from useless press conferences, what else is the WHO doing?

[ksubscribersyetnovideon]

WHO is criticizing nations for acting slow🤔

[scottriseborough]

They haven't tested everyone so they can't say their trying to slow it down if they don't know exactly who's infected how can they slow anything down with a small percentage of information of infected

[internautmedia]

Finally! It's only taken them 8 weeks. Been tracking all the experts since mid-Jan and they've all been slagging WHO off BIGLY for being too slow in this.

[moonchild]

He just said children will spread it so schools etc should be closed 🤔

[nabilbrh]

India: lockdown
Italy: lockdown
Denmark: lockdown
Lebanon: lockdown
Saudi Arabia: lockdown
Ireland: closes schools and universities
Japan: closes schools and universities
France: closes schools and universities
Turkey: closes schools
Scotland: bans gatherings of more than 500 people
America: bans flights from mainland Europe.

England&Wales: how about a nice cup of tea after you wash your hands.

[torelethain]

Umm, BBC, you should really learn the difference between a bio hazard symbol, and a radiation\nuclear symbol.

[nielsdaemen]

This will go into the history books.
It will be its own chapter.

[sussekind]

Pandemic is just a label used to describe a situation.
An epidemic, is a localized outbreak of disease. Usually within a country or within a small group of countries.
A pandemic, is where the disease spreads to many nations, all over the world. The term basically just describes how widespread the disease is.
Also, there is no exact point where an outbreak goes from epidemic to pandemic. It's looked at by the officials at WHO and the CDC as well as other specialists in the field, and use their best judgment to be able to alert the public to how wide spread the virus, in this case, is.

[brad]

why did they use the nuclear symbol instead of the biohazard symbol???

[foxley]

after contacting with patient which actually came out a positive covid-19, me and my colleagues at the emergency department is under quarantine and the whole building is being decontaminated, still waiting for test results, wish me luck. people still lack the common sense to tell us their travel history even with such pandemic happening right now.

[stephaniewhite]

We have to pray Boris Johnson stops flights and travel today - its no longer delay or containment as he keeps saying but just any damage limitation now possible !!

[airspun]

Tedros, it was pandemic last December 2019 💩

[usspotato]

Coronavirus: Most talked about around the world




Also Coronavirus: wait wait wait...it gets better

[francescapowell]

Why now... when Joe public already figured this out for themselves quite sometime ago.
These people are full of it.

[AkiraAlexisSoyra]

May those doctors young and old, who lost their lives in battle, finally rest peacefully knowing they were saving lives and are angels in disguise... 😢

[fredo]

"Inaction' pot kettle black WHO.

[angebryant]

Travel restrictions are not going to be effective. Just as any cold or flu (and corona has been classified as 10x worse), you are contagious at least a week before you even begin to show symptoms. By the time you begin to feel ill, how many people have you been around in a week? Have you spoken with anyone, gone out to eat, seen a movie, or even gas your vehicle or shopped for groceries? Anywhere...you have contracted it already, but do not feel it (yet), and you are contagious, probably much like the person who passed it to you had not realized that they were contagious. That's how fast it moves. The woman in California whom had not traveled, nor had any (known) contact with anyone whom had probably contracted the COVID-19 from a supposedly innocent source (as mentioned above). I'm not an alarmist, but I take my own precautions. I am also deeply troubled by the Administrations' early shutdown of the dept. (and experts) that were trained to control epidemics/pandemics, ; the downplay of the beginning, the lack of listening to scientific experts in the field and mishandling, the appointment of persons who have zero training, nor knowledge, of what/how they should be dealing. Who gives a **** what poli-position they hold? If someone should be in control of, and overseeing, a particular 'something', I prefer a person who actually has a person that gets the job because they kiss-ass.