Epidemic, Pandemic and Endemic

I decided to make one blog post for the terms Epidemic, Pandemic and Endemic rather than have separate posts for each of them. It makes sense to discuss all the terms together in one post as there are important differences between all three terms and all of them involve the spread of infectious disease.

Dictionary.com defines these terms as follows: “An epidemic involves the wide-ranging spread of a disease throughout an entire area or particular community where it’s not permanently prevalent. A pandemic involves an even wider spread, often reaching across the entire world. The word endemic is used to describe a disease that persistently and regularly spreads within a particular area or region (that is, it never fully goes away)—for example, the flu is considered endemic in many places. The COVID-19 virus is not yet considered endemic, but medical experts expect that it eventually will become endemic.”

To expound upon these terms a bit further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define an epidemic as a sudden increase in infections above what would be considered normal for a population in a particular geographic area. Consider a situation where there is an outbreak of measles in a school. The disease is quickly spread by coughing and sneezing and before long measles has spread throughout the town the school is located in. Because measles is a highly contagious disease, it doesn’t take long for the virus to cross geographical boundaries into nearby towns and then counties. The disease has now become an epidemic (Level of disease).

China was the first country to experience the Covid-19 virus. This rapidly infectious disease spread to other provinces in China and then spread to other countries. It arrived in the United States at the beginning of January 2020. Since then it has spread throughout the world and the level of the disease is that of a pandemic. Covid-19 has infected and killed millions of people across the globe.

When Covid-19 has a constant presence in a particular geographical area but is not causing disruptions to daily life, as has previously been the case with lockdowns and quarantine, then the level of the disease is said to be endemic. This is due to the fact that most people would have been infected with the virus and developed natural immunity and also because many people were vaccinated against Covid-19. In an article for the CNBC Health and Science column, Holly Ellyat writes that the “Professor David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that ‘the U.K is the closest to any country in being out of the pandemic if it isn’t already out of the pandemic and having the disease as endemic.'”

Social Media Trends as of May 17, 2022

Facebook #epidemic: 39,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #epidemic: 279,085 posts
TikTok #epidemic: 355.8 million views
YouTube #epidemic: 15,000 videos and 5,900 channels

Facebook #pandemic: 1,100,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #pandemic: 5,361,938 posts
TikTok #pandemic: 4.5 billion views
YouTube #pandemic: 140,000 videos and 62,000 channels

Facebook #endemic: 16,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #endemic: 131,934 posts
TikTok #endemic: 32.6 million views
YouTube #endemic: 1,000 videos and 694 channels

Google Trends

The search term epidemic peaked during the week of March 15, 2020 before tailing off in June that year.

The pandemic search term also peaked in popularity during the week of March 15, 2020, which is very similar to the “epidemic” search term.

The popularity of the search term endemic also peaked around the same time as the terms epidemic and pandemic but didn’t completely tail off. As Covid-19 infected more and more of the population, medical experts suggested that the disease would become endemic in the population.

Sources:

Ellyat, Holly. “UK could be among the first countries to emerge from Covid pandemic, top scientist says.” CNBC.com. Jan 12, 2022. URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/12/uk-could-be-first-country-to-emerge-from-pandemic-expert-says.html.

‘Epidemic’ vs. ‘Pandemic’ vs. ‘Endemic’: What Do These Terms Mean?” Dictionary.com. January 20, 2022. URL: https://www.dictionary.com/e/epidemic-vs-pandemic/.

“Level of disease. Section 11: Epidemic Disease Occurrence.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. May 18, 2012. URL: https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section11.html.