When to call a pandemic a pandemic?

[Treyfish]

Here will go my posts referring to the worldwide outbreak of coronavirus as a pandemic. There are somescientists, drs and bigwigs calling it that now. I'm waiting for it to be official

Germany’s Coronavirus ‘Pandemic’ Warning Ramps Up Pressure on WHO


The German health minister has described the coronavirus as a "worldwide pandemic," putting pressure on the laggard WHO to do the same.

• Germany’s health minister said that coronavirus had become a “worldwide pandemic.”
• The World Health Organization is still refusing to refer to the virus using that term.
• But the WHO’s admission that the death rate is higher than first believed shows the urgency of taking things more seriously.

The coronavirus outbreak has become a “worldwide pandemic.” So says Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn.

Spahn broke ranks with the World Health Organization and officially used the dreaded word “pandemic.” He warned that the coronavirus had “not yet reached its peak in Germany,” or the rest of the world....But in taking the step of labeling the coronavirus as a “worldwide pandemic,” the German government has openly acknowledged the full gravity of the threat the virus poses. The WHO Drags Its Heels....https://www.ccn.com/germanys-coronav...essure-on-who/

[Treyfish]

Netanyahu: We're in the midst of a pandemic, and expanding quarantine

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
MARCH 4, 2020 16:30

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israelis that while it is not openly spoken of as such, the coronavirus epidemic is a global-scale outbreak and it could “possibly be among the worst diseases in this century.”Italy is an advanced nation, he said, and yet is currently shutting down schools.....https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/...rantine-619756

[Treyfish]

Coronavirus has been declared a ‘global pandemic’

0
BY LLB REPORTER AT 3:08 PM MARCH 4, 2020
Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn has warned on Wednesday the coronavirus outbreak has now turned into a “global pandemic.”

Spahn said the outbreak, which has been teetering on the verge of a pandemic for many weeks, has now surpassed the level of epidemic.

Spahn told German lawmakers in the Bundestag, “The coronavirus outbreak in China has become a global pandemic.”

The Health Minister said, “The situation is changing very quickly. What’s clear is that we have not yet reached the peak of the outbreak.”

Spahn added, “The next days and weeks will be challenging.

“There will be restrictions on everyday life in affected areas ...https://londonlovesbusiness.com/coro...obal-pandemic/

[Treyfish]

Let's be clear, COVID-19 is a pandemic, and Canada is at risk

By Andrew Lodge | Opinion |
March 4th 2020It is time for public health officials and the global public to accept a simple reality. COVID-19 is a pandemic.
The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in Wuhan, China, has now—as of March 4—infected people in over 75 countries, on all continents save Antarctica.
There are now more than 94,000 cases worldwide with over 3,000 deaths. Both of those numbers will continue to rise as the virus rips through a global village with no prior immunity among the human population. Canada has now reported 33 cases, which will also continue to escalate.

The mortality rate of those infected appears to lie somewhere between 3 and 4 percent, though this too is evolving. Putting this in context, it is about 30 to 40 times more deadly than the seasonal flu.

Gargantuan—arguably draconian—measures taken by China have done much to slow the spread. But the new coronavirus is no longer contained. It has gone global.

By definition, COVID-19 is now a pandemic...https://www.nationalobserver.com/202...nd-canada-risk

[Treyfish]

Canadian military starts initial preparations for responding to pandemic

DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
Updated: March 4, 2020As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, the Canadian military has started initial preparations for responding to a pandemic.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance issued a message Wednesday that he has ordered the activation of Operation Laser Phase 2, which is described as “Pandemic/Preparation.”

“The purpose of that tasking order is to ensure that the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces) implements measures to maintain CAF operational effectiveness and and readiness, preserve essential health services for (members), and maintain responsive support to civil authorities as part of the CG (government) response,” Vance’s message noted.

“We will immediately assess CAF posture at home and abroad, refresh business continuity plans, protect defence supply chains, and take measures to limit the chance of infection of our (members).”

In addition, the Canadian Forces is reviewi...https://ottawacitizen.com/news/natio...ng-to-pandemic

[Treyfish]

Top hospital braces for coronavirus pandemic with secret warehouse full of emergency supplies

Massachusetts General Hospital gave NBC News an exclusive look inside the facility where it stockpiles critical items.March 4, 2020, 6:57 PM EST
By Didi Martinez, Brenda Breslauer and Stephanie Gosk
On a tree-lined block located an hour outside of Boston sits a secret warehouse filled with hundreds of boxes labeled "pandemic product."

The boxes, containing items like IV fluid, gloves and gowns, remain shrink wrapped in neat rows inside the facility until the day Massachusetts General Hospital orders an emergency infusion of supplies.

With the coronavirus spreading across the U.S., that day may soon be approaching.

"We are trying to hold out as long as we can to tap into that warehouse because we think there's a chance we will see sustained transmission in the community," said Dr. Paul Biddinger, chief of the division of emergency preparedness at Mass General, noting that the facility "takes us through the worst two weeks."...https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...plies-n1149976

[Treyfish]

10th case of coronavirus confirmed in Victoria as Premier warns of pandemic

A 10th case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Victoria as health authorities brace for the pandemic phase of the outbreak.

This comes as a 50-year-old Sydney aged care worker and an 82-year-old patient she was caring for both tested positive for the virus, bringing the total of human-to-human transmission cases in Australia to four, all of which are in NSW...https://www.watoday.com.au/national/...04-p546nl.html

[Treyfish]

Coronavirus: Preparing for the Pandemic

BLOG - 3 MARCH 2020
By Eric Chaney
ECONOMIC ADVISOR
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic has become a pandemic.
While it appears to be stagnating in China, it is spreading rapidly in Japan, Iran, Italy and elsewhere in Europe, including Germany and France. In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) warned the authorities that the country would not be spared, which led to a sharp fall in the financial markets. The question of the economic cost of the measures to be taken to curb the epidemic has, since then, entered the political debate. In this regard, although the information from China is not fully transparent, it should not be ignored: procrastination is the worst policy and the high economic cost of the radical measures needed to contain the epidemic should not deter the authorities. At the same time, thinking that economic boosters such as fiscal or monetary stimulus could erase the shock is an illusion. Dr. Li's death caused a 180-degree turn by the Chinese authorities...

By December 2019, the first cases of infection with a new variant of coronavirus had been detected in the town of Wuhan, but the authorities were quick to impose a blackout, including by ordering the destruction of samples from sick people for fear of a panic reaction from the popula....https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en...aring-pandemic

[sharon sanders]

It was pretty clear on February 28 that this disease outbreak was a pandemic when New Zealand and Nigeria both declared their first cases only a couple of hours apart.

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/the-pandemic-discussion-forum/830929-discussion-thread-iii-covid-19-new-coronavirus?p=832078#post832078

I am not sure the W.H.O. is ever going to declare a pandemic officially. I think they dropped the name.

The CDC first mentioned "pandemic" on January 31.

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/-2019-ncov-new-coronavirus/united-states-2019-ncov/826436-us-audio-cdc-telebriefing-update-on-2019-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-january-31-2020?p=826510#post826510

[sharon sanders]

Osterholm on February 25 -

"Of course it is [a pandemic]. We're there. It doesn't matter what kind of terminology you use.... We can either use pandemic as a word that makes us all quake with fear or we can use it as a rallying cry to say, 'This is what we're going to do to fight it.' "
KARE-11, Feb 25, 2020, regarding COVID-19

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/osterholm-quotes

[Treyfish]

Osterholm on February 25 -

"Of course it is [a pandemic]. We're there. It doesn't matter what kind of terminology you use.... We can either use pandemic as a word that makes us all quake with fear or we can use it as a rallying cry to say, 'This is what we're going to do to fight it.' "
KARE-11, Feb 25, 2020, regarding COVID-19

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/osterholm-quotes

I like that statement

[Treyfish]

Prepare for a pandemic

BMJ 2020; 368 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m864 (Published 05 March 2020)

A covid-19 pandemic is highly likely, warns our editorialist, the epidemiologist John Watkins (doi:10.1136/bmj.m810), and we need to plan now how to reconfigure care services to cope with the looming escalation in demand. “We should plan on the assumption that most of the population may contract the virus with few or no long term effects,” he writes, “while harnessing vital secondary healthcare resources to treat the small percentage of people who become seriously ill.”

As at Tuesday 3 March the UK had confirmed 51 cases of infection (doi:10.1136/bmj.m854). England’s chief medical officer, Chris Witty, said at the launch of the government’s plan that at worst 80% of people could be infected, most with mild symptoms. He suggested a 1% fatality rate, but with many more deaths among older people and patients with pre-existing condit...https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m864

[Treyfish]

Coronavirus outbreak already at pandemic levels, Israeli health official warns

Health Ministry’s Asher Shalmon says situation around the world points to an emerging ‘full-blown international event,’ says vaccine a year away despite claims

By NATHAN JEFFAY
Today, 4:37 am 2 The novel coronavirus spreading across the world is already at a “pandemic” stage, a top Israeli health official said Thursday, though world health authorities have held off from declaring a global outbreak.

“Although officially the World Health Organization has not yet declared a pandemic, we do feel we are at a pandemic stage,” Asher Shalmon, the Health Ministry’s director of international relations, said Thursday.
The coronavirus has infected nearly 98,000 people worldwide and killed over 3,300, the vast majority of them in China. Cases have been reported in 80 countries and in recent days, more people outside China have been falling ill than inside the country, where the virus is on the decline.


Shalmon said he believes that the situation around the world points to an emerging “full-blown international event.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the body is not declaring the outbreak a pandemic because the cases still appear to be traceable, and the virus is not yet “spreading freely in communities.” But he also said he would not hesitate to use the pandemic label if the evidence backs it up.

On Tuesday, a top CDC health official in the US told a Senate committee that the WHO could soon declare the virus outbreak a pandemic.

“If sustained person-to-person spread in the community takes hold outside China, this will increase the likelihood that the WHO will deem it a global pandemic,” Deputy Director Anne Schuchat said, according to NBC News.
...
Shalmon said he expects a vaccine to take at least a year, pouring cold water on claims that Israelis were racing ahead with a cure. A Science Ministry press release claiming that the state-funded Galilee Research Institute was three months away from a vaccine had made headlines last week, but Shalmon said people should not place “false hopes” in it.
...https://www.timesofisrael.com/corona...fficial-warns/

[Treyfish]

Netanyahu calls virus ‘pandemic’ as Israel plans restrictions on some US flights

Decision expected within hours on planes arriving from New York, DC, California; PM wants security forces, youth to disinfect public places; 25 Israelis infected

By TOI STAFF
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the coronavirus was a pandemic more severe than any disease outbreak in the past century, as a senior official said Israel was likely hours away from placing restrictions on flights arriving from some parts of the United States.

“First of all, this is a global pandemic, whether the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) calls it such or not. It is a matter of days or hours. It is doubtful whether there has been a similar pandemic in the last 100 years. It seems that the rate of infection is greater than we figured.”
He went on: “The assumption that the virus will disappear or evaporate in hot weather is unproven. At the moment, this has no basis that we can build on. The virus is currently spreading to Africa. There is no vaccine and anti-viral drugs ....https://www.timesofisrael.com/netany...me-us-flights/

[Treyfish]

UN refuses to call coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, scientists disagree

COMMENTS
By Euronews with AP • last updated: 07/03/2020 - 18:11

Francisco Seco/Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

• As cases of the coronavirus surge in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the U.S. and elsewhere, many scientists say it's plain that the world is in the grips of a pandemic — a serious global outbreak.

The World Health Organization has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word “pandemic” might spook the world further and lead some countries to lose hope of containing the virus.

“Unless we’re convinced it’s uncontrollable, why (would) we call it a pandemic?” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.

The U.N. health agency has previously described a pandemic as a situation in which a new virus is causing “sustained community-level outbreaks” in at least two world regions.

Experts say threshold has long been met

Many experts say that threshold has long been met: The virus that was first identified in China is now spreading freely in four regions, it has reached every continent but Antarctica, and its advance seems unavoidable. The disease has managed to gain a foothold and multiply quickly even in countries with relatively strong public health systems.

On Friday, the virus hit a new milestone, infecting more than 100,000 people worldwide, far more than those sickened by SARS, MERS or Ebola in recent years.


“I think it’s pretty clear we’re in a pandemic and I don’t know why WHO is resisting that,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Declaring pandemic could cause further restrictions
Experts acknowledge that declaring a pandemic is politically fra...https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/07/...-+news+-+en%29