WHO says it no longer uses 'pandemic' category, but virus still emergency

ruters ^

[janetjanet998]

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization no longer uses the term pandemic, but the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak remains an international emergency that is likely to spread further, a spokesman said on Monday.

[bluejean]

All of this mayhem and the WHO is agonizing about what words they can use. That inspires confidence.

[samtheman]

Damn! That was close!

I knew us panic-driven extremists were wrong claiming this would be a pandemic. Close call, nearly was one.

...but all is well now! LOL.
—
Exactly. Now that the UN says we’re all safe... nothing to worry about.

When is the UN ever wrong about anything?

[WKUHilltopper]

The means the globalists have determine is the best way to take down the economy.

[janetjanet998]

WHO chief Tedros: “Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not
yet.

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1231962584389181442

[janetjanet998]

Norman, there is no such thing as a pandemic

Listen very carefully Norman, Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? NO

[janetjanet998]

Norman, there is no such thing as a pandemic

Listen very carefully Norman, Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? NO

[Tellurian]

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty Tedros said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

I guess it's not a literal pandemic until every person in the world has it. On another note, if this one isn't pandemic enough, what's next in the WMD pipeline?

[gandalftb]

The Hajj Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca is:
.................
Tue, Jul 28, 2020 – Sun, Aug 2, 2020
...............
Attendance: 7,952,121 (2018)

[sauropod]

.

[HollyB]

Like when 44 tried to change the term’ war on terror’ to ‘overseas contingency operation’ .

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Dow futures are down 832 points this morning no matter how it’s labeled. This is taking Trumps line of how’s your 401k’s doing away from him. Libs are ecstatic I’m sure.

Markets will recover before the election...might end up being great timing for a rebound

[HollyB]

Just to clear things up - eye roll

“ description versus a definition

Harvey Fineberg, chairman of a WHO-appointed International Health Regulations (IHR) Review Committee that evaluated WHO’s response to H1N1 influenza, identified the definition of pandemic influenza as a “critical element of our review”.8 In a draft report released in March, the committee faulted WHO for “inadequately dispelling confusion about the definition of a pandemic” and noted WHO’s “reluctance to acknowledge its part in allowing misunderstanding”9 of the web page alteration, which WHO has characterized as a change in the “description” but not in the “definition” of pandemic influenza. “It’s not a definition, but we recognize that it could be taken as such … It was the fault of ours, confusing descriptions and definitions”,10 a WHO communications officer declared. Indeed, the Council of Europe was not alone in claiming that the “definition” had been changed.7,11,12

WHO argues that this phrase – which could be more neutrally referred to as a description–definition – had little bearing on policy responses; a WHO press release states that it was “never part of the formal definition of a pandemic” and was never sent to Member States, but simply appeared in “a document on WHO’s website for some months”.13 In actuality, the description–definition was displayed at the top of the WHO Pandemic Preparedness home page for over six years and is consistent with the descriptions of pandemic influenza put forth in various WHO policy documents over the years.14–16 However, while the original description–definition unambiguously describes disease severity and certainly reflects general assumptions about pandemic influenza before novel H1N1 emerged, it is unrelated to the criteria WHO applied to declare H1N1 influenza a pandemic.”

https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/7/11-086173/en/

Guidelines

https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/7/BLT-11-086173-table-T1.html

Phases of pandemic levels

http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/communicable-diseases/influenza/data-and-statistics/pandemic-influenza/about-pandemic-phases

“ The current WHO phase of pandemic alert is 6.”
“ Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

During the post-peak period, pandemic disease levels in most countries with adequate surveillance will have dropped below peak observed levels. The post-peak period signifies that pandemic activity appears to be decreasing; however, it is uncertain if additional waves will occur and countries will need to be prepared for a second wave.

Previous pandemics have been characterized by waves of activity spread over months. Once the level of disease activity drops, a critical communications task will be to balance this information with the possibility of another wave. Pandemic waves can be separated by months and an immediate “at-ease” signal may be premature.”