How many folks know the difference between epidemic and pandemic? Hint: they're not necessarily related. One is a mathematical function, the other regional. And epidemic is declared after a certain percentage point has been passed among the general population point, whereas a pandemic is declared after a certain number of otherwise unrelated geographical boundaries have been crossed. We have a pandemic of common flu every year, as it hits so many countries at once.
I am concerned that "pandemic" is being misused by the press to enhance the scare factor, when many, many illnesses become pandemics rapidly due to worldwide travel. It's not worse than an epidemic: the two terms are not interchangeable, technically.
I'd welcome anyone to clarify the differences better, as I'm doing this from memory!
Good point. I've heard conflicting opinions on the definitions. The WHO seems to use pandemic simply to mean cases in more geographical regions (it says it on their website somewhere). Also, to cause a raise in the alert level, the infection must have been shown to spread between humans.
However I've also heard the term 'pandemic' used to mean a much higher than usual proportion of infected people, even in just a single area, with 'epidemic' meaning the usually expected number.
At the end of the day, words tend to mean different things to different people and in different contexts. At least the WHO clearly define what they mean by pandemic.
The press mostly don't have a clue and don't even care. In the UK it's just given the government something to take our minds off their incompetence and corruption, which up until a week ago was starting to become unavoidable news. Probably not much different in the USA I would guess.
Personally, I'm not very concerned at the moment. Symptoms seem no more severe than any seasonal flu. At the moment the pandemic is more of an inconvenience to business and trade than a threat to civilization as we know it.
I did do some checking up on the wearing of surgical masks, as I always thought they were more to stop infection spreading from the person wearing one, than to protect them from others' infections. I was correct, at least as far as virii are concerned.
N95 masks only stop particles down to about 0.3 micron. Great for spores and bacteria, not much use for virii. FFP3 masks are only a little better. They do stop you breathing in the aerosol spray from someone's cough or sneeze though.
Unless one is in a crowded environment with, or in close contact with, infected persons they don't actually do very much. They can even make it more likely to become infected if overused as they become damp and warm, possible catching and assisting the transmission of virii to the wearer!
Cleanliness and common sense seems far more important than wearing a face mask unless you have a specific need to.