On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic. [2]
“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction…We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It’s a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.”
WHO Director General, Tedros Adhonom Ghebreyesus on March 11, 2020 at Virtual press conference on COVID-19 [3, 4]
The following day Tedros stated “this assessment for two main reasons: first, because of the speed and scale of transmission”.
Though the declaration of a “pandemic is no longer a designation triggering a formal response” stated Tarik Jasarevic a WHO spokesperson, the PHEIC last month put all member states on alert !
The declaration of a PHEIC, not “pandemic” it would appear, gave the WHO Director-General overreaching global powers to member states who signed the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005). The documents purpose is for the “control of the international spread of disease” yet the word pandemic is only mentioned once, and epidemic twice, in the entire document!
The WHO definition of a pandemic colloquially refers to “an outbreak of a new pathogen that spreads easily from person to person across the globe”. This has no consideration of the pathogen’s lethality across the population! (see 2009) Though in the minds of the public who are not aware of this the mere declaration could instill fear.
As stated March 2019 by the HHS “The very word ‘pandemic’ conjures images of global disease and death“, state the article responding to Global Influenza Strategy document released by WHO EXACTLY, one year prior on March 11, 2019. The cover looking more like a coronavirus that influenza! [1]