Talk:Pandemic

missing information on how pandemics end

The article says nothing about how pandemics end. In fact, it doesn't even mention that they do. There is also no information here or anywhere else on WP on this topic or even on changes in virulence, not even in that article.

Even more absurd is that even that article doesn't even mention transmission-virulence trade-off or the researchers Roy M. Anderson and Robert May.

Even more absurd is that the latter article doesn't even mention the former and neither article mentions that these researchers disproved the so-called law of declining virulence. In fact only that redirected link leads to an article that has sources on research that disproved that "law", though even that article failed to mention until yesterday that it has been disproved... --Espoo (talk) 08:08, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

.....That you added yourself, and then had it rejected because "Disprove" is not a conclusion supported by the research you seem to be leaning on here. Rather than shooting off insults, I'd advise going over the wikipedia rules on original research, and adjust your efforts accordingly. Duckmonster (talk) 03:49, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Pandemic

COVID 19 or corona virus 223.235.117.110 (talk) 12:52, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

1900-1950s polio epidemic a pandemic?

The article Polio now describes the 1950s Polio epidemic as a pandemic:

Small localized paralytic polio epidemics began to appear in Europe and the United States around 1900.[155] Outbreaks reached pandemic proportions in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century.

Does this qualify polio as a notable outbreak for the pandemic article? Robert P. O'Shea (talk) 14:25, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Current state vs. history

Moved images according to it. --Medupdate3 (talk) 09:53, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Transcription

I think it would be great to add transcription of the word so non-english speakers can pronounce it better 195.91.12.142 (talk) 15:08, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

I've added it, using a template that we have for this purpose. I'm sorry that you had trouble getting this into the article. I suspect that not everyone recognizes IPA. Schools in the US don't usually teach it, except in some linguistics and music classes at university. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:39, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

I feel like this argument could be made for just about every article title on here. Given the current state of the encyclopedia, I don't believe this is entirely necessary, unless it's part of some broader shift toward including a pronunciation alongside the title of every single article (which I would be more supportive of). If there's confusion as to how to pronounce a word, Wiktionary is an excellent resource for this type of information. In the case of "pandemic", though, if we're going to include the pronunciation in the article, I would recommend using the pronunciation that Wiktionary provides (and the only pronunciation I've ever heard as a native speaker of English): "/pænˈdɛmɪk/". There is no possibility of producing this pronunciation if relying solely on the transcription currently included in the article. However, as I disagree with this addition, I feel disinclined to make the change; I sense an WP:EDITWAR brewing with all these edits and reversions, and I shall take no part in it. At the very least, let what's included — whether etymology or pronunciation — be accurate in its own right. Nabbovirus (talk) 06:20, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

Proposals for improvement

There are a few things are needed to give this article better focus and value.

1. The "assessment" section is completely out of date, and only cites protocols (now withdrawn) for influenza outbreaks
2. Needs a discussion of the criteria for beginning and end of pandemic, and what follows (elimination, control or endemicity). Especially relevant with COVID-19
3. A brief section on endemicity, citing diseases such as measles, malaria, typhus which are currently fairly well controlled but subject to flare-ups in locations where control measures are poor.
4. Remove endemic diseases (meases, malaria, typhus etc) from the section on "diseases with pandemic potential". Remove smallpox from this section as well, it's extinct.
5. Remove other disease-specific paragraphs from section on "diseases with pandemic potential". They should be listed and wikilinked so the the reader can read further, but Wikipedia:UNDUE applies as they make this section too long
6. Some headings near the bottom of the article have no content (or inappropriate content)

I'm planning to work my way through them, but any help will be appreciated. Bob (talk) 14:11, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

Yeh the stages section of assessment needs to be completely removed. The WHO's various steps/stages of a pandemic doesn't exist anymore and the WHO seems to spend a bit of effort trying to tell the world it doesn't/cannot declare beginning or ends of pandemics.

For No.2 Your input would be strongly appreciated at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:COVID-19_pandemic#Is_it_over? (and the discussion below it). While the multi-month long discussion is still open, a consensus being reached is that there is far more weight with media and medical sources referring to the pandemic as over.

No.4 there's a few things wrong with it and I'd like others opinions on it. I would think at least two of the organizations need to call a disease a pandemic potential in order for it to be put in there. Also those three pages shouldn't be the only source. There's also the problem that a lot of health agencies call influenza a pandemic potential but it's not in the list.

No.5 Fully agree, I'll work through that now. AndrewRG10 (talk) 00:23, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

Looking at No.5, there's a few I'm just gonna have to completely remove as there is no sources or information stating why they are a pandemic potential, they're just stubs or what the disease is which can be done with hyperlinks in the table. AndrewRG10 (talk) 00:30, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

One last thing, the ongoing section. I've removed Mpox because the PHEIC is over and medical and media sources (which mostly have gone completely silent) only refer to it in past tense.

COVID-19 will be removed pending the discussion on the Covid pandemic talk page. I personally am edging towards removing HIV/AIDS too. If HIV isn't removed, Tuberculosis has to be added. Both are severe public health issues killing hundreds of thousands of people, but they're both stable, manageable diseases, HIV and Tuberculosis can hardly be called outbreaks. AndrewRG10 (talk) 01:09, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

HIV and TB are endemic diseases, but only because there are effective drug treatments holding them back - there is no herd immunity. Thats why we need a section on endemicity. COVID-19 is in transition, we don't know yet whether its eventual endemicity will resemble the common cold (no preventive measures) or like influenza (seasonal vaccination program).

Should we add a section called "Pandemics in the last 50 years"?

Bob (talk) 10:25, 30 July 2023 (UTC)

Popping in to say I support the recent removal of a lot of cruft/muddying of the topic, as well as the correction of the claim that long bugged me that HIV constitutes an ongoing pandemic, which I had never seen outside of Wikipedia before and seemed very WP:UNDUE. I also support the updates regarding COVID-19. Crossroads ^-talk- 21:59, 30 July 2023 (UTC)