A worldwide outbreak of a disease.
The term 'pandemic' is often confused with 'epidemic'.
Some current pandemics are Swine Flu and HIV/AIDS. Some
may consider the common
cold a pandemic.
Pandemics have been known to vary unpredictably from very mild to devastating. Swine Flu was predicted to be a really
bad outbreak, hence the extreme precautions taken, but it turned out to be a harmless
cold. Spanish Flu, on the other hand, was not predicted and caused widespread damage, with an estimated 50,000,000 deaths worldwide.
Pandemics are usually mild if precautions are taken, and usually don't do much harm. While the media
may make it sound horrible, they often leave out important details, like the infectivity, number of cases, and
death RATE. Most cases are never confirmed, either; usually just the severe cases. You could get swine flu and never know.
Pandemic is also a popular online
game in which the
player attempts to kill off the human species with the perfect disease.
People are taking this pandemic way too
seriously. It will inevitably go away on its own without the
help of panic and media headlines.
