What’s the Difference Between Pandemic, Epidemic and Outbreak?

What’s the Difference Between Pandemic, Epidemic and Outbreak?
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The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. This is a landmark event.

As an epidemiologist listening to the steady stream of conversation around the coronavirus, I’m hearing newscasters and neighbors alike mixing up three important words my colleagues and I use in our work every day: outbreak, epidemic, and pandemic.

Rebecca S.B. Fischer 
Rebecca S.B. Fischer 
Author
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