text/Li Guangdou
Is the new coronavirus a pandemic?
In this regard, WHO has been hesitant and is very cautious every time it expresses its position.
Although the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide has exceeded 90,000, and the disease has spread to 76 countries around the world, the number of new cases in a single day in countries other than China continues to increase, with the data being nearly 9 times higher than that in China; the global death toll from COVID-19 The number of people killed has reached 3,100, and China’s death toll has exceeded that of the United States on 9/11. However, Comrade Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, still firmly said: The new coronavirus pneumonia has not yet constituted a large-scale epidemic spreading globally (Global pandemic), but an epidemic in different parts of the world (Epidemics in different parts of the world) ).
The reason why Tedros did not declare COVID-19 a global pandemic was that the evidence was not yet conclusive.
What is the criteria for a “pandemic” recognized by the World Health Organization?
In the simplest and most straightforward terms, the most frightening thing about a pandemic is the word "big": large scale and wide scope, which is the worst case of an infectious disease. In English, it is called Global Pandemic, sometimes also referred to as abbreviation For Pandemic, that is, a global epidemic. It means that a certain disease reaches the stage of a pandemic when it crosses a specific country, spreads to the whole world, exists among ordinary people, and forms a community-level epidemic outbreak, resulting in a situation where the entire human race may be infected. When the swine influenza epidemic (new influenza A H1N1 virus ) appeared in 2009, the WHO issued a Pandemic warning. According to the narrow definition of a pandemic, if a certain infectious disease is prevalent in more than two continental plates, it can be judged as a pandemic. According to this, many authoritative epidemiological experts around the world believe that COVID-19 has become a global pandemic disease, and the sooner it is identified, the better. Although the new coronavirus is currently under control in China, its global spread has crossed three stages: domestic, inter-country, and inter-continent. Confirmed cases have appeared in every continent except Antarctica, and the trend continues. The epidemic is spreading, and what’s even more terrible is that there are still no effective and dedicated therapeutic drugs and vaccines. Some WHO consultants predict that the new coronavirus will infect at least millions or even hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Tedros and others are worried that defining COVID-19 as a "pandemic" will cause worldwide panic and will inevitably affect the strategic policies of various countries to prevent and fight the epidemic, thereby worsening the world economy. This view coincides with President Trump, who is seeking re-election. It is precisely because of this uncertainty that U.S. stocks have fallen repeatedly. The Federal Reserve mentioned the new coronavirus 48 times in its "Beige Book" report released on Wednesday: The escalating coronavirus epidemic has begun to affect business sentiment in the United States. The spread of the epidemic has caused financial markets to plummet due to concerns about the escalation of the crisis. It could lead to a slowdown in the global economy. To mitigate the possible impact of the epidemic on the U.S. economy. For the first time since the financial crisis broke out in 2008, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates in an emergency by 50 basis points at a time.
Although Trump has repeatedly reassured the public that COVID-19 is not a problem in the United States, local governments in the United States do not buy Trump’s account. The largest state in the United States, California, has declared a state of emergency across the state, becoming the second largest state after Washington state , After Florida , the third state in the United States declared a state of emergency.
At the critical moment, the U.S. Pentagon joined the queue of whistleblowers. According to the US "Newsweek" report, the US Department of Defense directly used the word "pandemic" in the daily intelligence briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on February 27, warning the US military to prepare for the new coronavirus epidemic. Prepare for possible serious global impacts. Pentagon officials predict that the new coronavirus epidemic "may" become a global pandemic within 30 days. The Department of Defense is not only worried about the impact of the new coronavirus on the mission readiness of the US military, but also worries that military personnel who may have been infected may inadvertently return home. spread the virus to the United States.
According to CNN, as of 12:00 ET on March 4, a total of 132 cases of new coronary pneumonia have been confirmed in the United States, including 9 deaths. An increase of 26 cases compared with the previous 24 hours. Confirmed cases have increased significantly across the United States. In the age of the global village, no country can survive alone; a WHO employee in Iran has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and a senior EU official headquartered in Brussels has also been diagnosed recently. The four KIIJ countries, namely South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan, are the most severely affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. About 80% of the confirmed cases reported outside China come from these four countries. Among them, South Korea has more than 5,600 confirmed cases. COVID-19 does not only infect humans. It has been reported in Hong Kong, China that dogs can also be infected with the disease. The confirmed case was a pet dog.
It is a foregone conclusion that COVID-19 will become a global pandemic.
Lancaster University in the UK once pointed out based on a prediction model: In the worst case scenario, Wuhan may infect up to 190,000 people. Zhong Nanshan also mentioned a prediction published in The Lancet, which estimated that the number of infected cases in China would reach 160,000 in early February. Although these predictions were later disproved, the predictions themselves were an early warning. If there is an early warning, there will be no concealment and indifference. If there is concern, intervention will be taken. The earlier the action and the more powerful the intervention, the more likely it is to slow down the spread of the epidemic.
Only if prepares for the worst and makes the best preparations, can survive the epidemic that is sweeping the world.
Global COVID-19 epidemic:
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