I am releasing this off schedule because it's a timely topic.

You might even call it an emergency pod

If you're familiar with the podcasting world. Let's get started.

Today, CNN announced it would be calling the coronavirus disease COVID-19 a pandemic, even though the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are sticking with epidemic for now.

So what's the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic?

Well, generally speaking, a pandemic is more severe, it's more serious than an epidemic.

A pandemic spreads wider and affects more people.

According to the CDC, an epidemic is an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area.

And a pandemic is an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.

Those definitions are subjective.

It's not as if there's a scientific test that reveals that yes, suddenly, at this one moment we meet the criteria for a pandemic.

But since the virus has now affected more than 100,000 people worldwide, (it) is in more than 100 countries and is on every continent except Antarctica ...

COIVD-19 seems to meet the general criteria for a pandemic.

In fact, in a press conference this morning, the director general of the World Health Organization said quote: "The threat of a pandemic has become very real" unquote, but community transmission is still limited to a smaller number of countries.

The executive director of the World Health Organization World Emergencies Program, Mike Ryan, said that if this were influenza, they would have already called it a pandemic.

But he further explained their resistance to using the word by citing concerns that doing so could cause more harm than good.

He said, for me, I'm not worried about the word.

I'm worried about the world's reaction to the word.

Will we use it as call to action?

Will we use it to fight or will we use it to give up?

Also, here's a bit of help with the terminology because it can be confusing.

The disease was originally called the 2019 novel coronavirus.

According to the World Health Organization, the official name of the virus is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2 for short.

And the name of the disease is coronavirus disease, or COVID-19.

So much like HIV is the virus that causes AIDS,

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

If you're wondering about the origins of the words, the demic part comes from the Greek word demos, which means people.

It's the same root that gives us the word democratic, which means government by the people.

"Epi" in epidemic means among or upon.

So an epidemic is among the people or upon the people, and "pan" means all so a pandemic is affecting all the people.

Like the executives from the World Health Organization, I urge you to not give up.

COVID-19 maybe a pandemic.

But we can fight it.

We can slow it down. That's all, thanks for watching!