Does it mean that ilnesses that linger for a long time without a large number of deaths are all pandemics? In that case HIV would be a poandemic.
HIV/AIDS is often referred to as a pandemic, yes.
It also could be the other way round if the info about how the victims are counted is true. I'm talking about people who died with COVID19 in their bloodstream. In most countries they were counted as COVID19 victims and nobody bothered to determine the real cause of death. Many hospitals isolate patients with covid19 and if they die for any reasons the bodies are cremated right away.
I'm not saying you are not right about the number of deaths but you could be wrong and the real numbers could be much lower.
I'm not saying you are not right about the number of deaths but you could be wrong and the real numbers could be much lower.
I'm sure they are being over counted in some places and under counted in others.
In terms of shear numbers, I think China and the US are of most interest. A lot of data has shown China has systematically hidden the scope of infections (probably by orders of magnitude) the same way they have always lied about their economic and other data. The US too, as a matter of policy, does not test (or count) anyone who wasn't hospitalized prior to dying. If they're only counting cases where there was a positive test, the actual death count is almost certainly higher.
"Excess deaths" are probably meaningful in this respect. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-mortality-hint-higher-coronavirus-death.html
Quote
The official figures include only those deaths attributed to coronavirus, but experts are increasingly looking at data comparing this year's death rates with previous years—regardless of the official cause.
This "excess deaths" metric raises the spectre of a much higher toll, as it includes fatalities indirectly related to the virus—for example, people suffering from other illnesses who could not access treatment because of the strain the pandemic has placed on hospitals.
Throughout the crisis, methods of data compilation have differed widely between nations, making direct comparisons difficult.
In Italy, between February 20 and March 31, 12,428 people were recorded as having died of the coronavirus. But in the same period, authorities noted 25,354 "excess deaths" compared with the average of the five previous years.
For the United States, the difference is even more striking: according to data for March, before the country was hit by the worst of the pandemic, the number of excess deaths reached 6,000—more than triple the official COVID-19 toll.
Even in Germany, widely considered by experts to have handled the outbreak better than other EU countries, 3,706 deaths more than the average were noted in March, even as the official virus toll was 2,218.
This "excess deaths" metric raises the spectre of a much higher toll, as it includes fatalities indirectly related to the virus—for example, people suffering from other illnesses who could not access treatment because of the strain the pandemic has placed on hospitals.
Throughout the crisis, methods of data compilation have differed widely between nations, making direct comparisons difficult.
In Italy, between February 20 and March 31, 12,428 people were recorded as having died of the coronavirus. But in the same period, authorities noted 25,354 "excess deaths" compared with the average of the five previous years.
For the United States, the difference is even more striking: according to data for March, before the country was hit by the worst of the pandemic, the number of excess deaths reached 6,000—more than triple the official COVID-19 toll.
Even in Germany, widely considered by experts to have handled the outbreak better than other EU countries, 3,706 deaths more than the average were noted in March, even as the official virus toll was 2,218.
Can we attribute every one of those excess deaths to COVID-19? Of course not, but it would be naive to assume it played no role.
