Epidemic vs. Pandemic: What Does That Mean for You and Your Kids?

According to Merriam-Webster, “pandemic” is defined as “an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.”

That sounds scary, but it simply recognizes the fact that the disease has spread to over 100 countries on every continent (except Antarctica) and that it has not been contained.

It’s also recognition that this disease outbreak is an epidemic on steroids — and that it’s still a danger to millions of people around the world. But it doesn’t indicate a change in our knowledge of COVID-19, how it is spread, and how to keep your family safe.

One of the difficulties in tracking this new disease is that it presents itself in most people in the same manner as the flu, or even as a common cold (which is caused by a different coronavirus). One of the ways coronaviruses, like the one that causes COVID-19, differs from flu is that when children are infected, their symptoms tend to remain mild.

“With respiratory infections like this, we usually see a U-shaped curve on who gets hits hardest. Young children at one end of the U because their immune systems aren’t yet developed and old people at the other end because their immune systems grow weaker,” Vineet Menachery, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch told the Washington Post. “With this virus, one side of the U is just completely missing.”

If you and your kids are healthy with no serious health conditions, the symptoms of COVID-19 will likely be similar to a bad cold or flu. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it seriously: The National Institute of Health estimates that each person who contracts COVID-19 will infect another 2-3 people, and those infected may very well include folks who are vulnerable to severe respiratory symptoms.

“My daughter and her wife have told us ‘better safe than sorry,’ since both my husband and I are in the ‘dangerous’ demographic (old, chronic illness), so they won’t be bringing their 6-year-old daughter over to see us for a while. Gonna have to set up the webcam,” Marte Brengle of Los Angeles told Mom.com.

Explaining this to your kids doesn’t have to be difficult. One mom from California told Mom.com, “I’ve talked with each of my kids some, but my 11-year-old has been the most concerned. I think it has overall gone well. I kept it as honest as I could. School is not cancelled here. I suspect they’re hoping to make it to spring break, which starts at the end of next week.”

The effect of the novel coronavirus has been dire in Italy, which made news by being the first country in the west to impose a nationwide lockdown. Severe infections there have overwhelmed the capability of their medical system — and the same thing can happen here.

“We are 10 days from the hospitals getting creamed,” former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert told NBC News. To avoid this, measures must be taken to flatten the outbreak curve.

“This requires coordination and implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions. School closures, isolation of the sick, home quarantines of those who have come into contact with the sick, social distancing, telework, and large-gathering cancellations must be implemented before the spread of the disease in any community reaches 1%,” Bossert wrote in an op-ed published by the Washington Post.

History tells us that these actions work: In 1918, both the cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis had parades planned to promote the sale of war bonds. But with that year’s onset of a flu pandemic, St. Louis cancelled their parade. Philadelphia allowed theirs to happen. “The next month, more than 10,000 people in Philadelphia died from pandemic flu, while the death toll in Saint Louis did not rise above 700,” the CDC says.

The nation is taking this to heart. St. Patrick’s Day parades in Boston and New York have been cancelled. Communities around the country are announcing school closures, bans on large gatherings, restrictions on visitors to nursing homes, and the like. The organizers of large gatherings like SXSW and Coachella have cancelled or postponed their events. As of this writing, both the NBA and MLB have suspended their 2020 seasons and more are expected to follow suit.