Global pandemic

[Glizdka]

Because the coronavirs has been spreading widely over the past few months, and the WHO declared it being a pandemic, I've seen this word, pandemic, quite a lot recently.

I've seen the media using the combination "a global pandemic", which doesn't seem right. The pan- part of the word pandemic already means it's global; it sounds tautological to me. Am I correct?

 

[SoothingDave]

"Pandemic" means it has spread over a wide area, and into more than one country. A pandemic is not necessarily global.

 

[emsr2d2]

Because the coronavirus has been spreading widely over the past few months, and the WHO has declared it [STRIKE]being[/STRIKE] a pandemic, I've seen this word, pandemic, quite a lot recently.

Please note my corrections above.

 

[Tdol]

Mind you, the WHO have changed their mind on what a pandemic is- they said that they only used it for influenza and weren't going to call coronavirus a pandemic, then decided to call it one when everyone else was.