Health

What Has To Happen For A Pandemic To Be Declared Over?

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Kaylee Greenlee Immigration and Extremism Reporter
Font Size:

Though the World Health Organization has not yet established clear measures for when a pandemic has ended, officials have previously cited criteria such as vaccine development and evidence of herd immunity.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, based on an increase in cases outside of China, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Ghebreyesus said that progress on effective vaccines against COVID-19 should give people hope, but warned that the pandemic is far from over, according to the United Nations News on Dec. 4.

“The pandemic still has a long way to run and decisions made by leaders and citizens in the coming days will determine both the course of the virus in the short term, and when this pandemic will ultimately end,” Ghebreyesus said, according to UN News.

Ghebreyesus has not yet specified the standards for declaring an end to the pandemic, according to the WHO.

Pandemics and epidemics such as Ebola and H1N1 or “Swine Flu” have previously been declared over after a decline in outbreaks and some evidence of herd immunity, according to the WHO.

Former WHO Director-General Margaret Chan declared an end to the H1N1 influenza pandemic after consulting with an emergency committee in August 2010, according to MedPage Today. Chan said that the “virus has largely run its course,” and that it would likely appear similar to the seasonal flu “for some years to come.”

Chan added that serious outbreaks of H1N1 were still possible and that people should continue getting vaccinated despite announcing an end to the pandemic, according to MedPage Today. The decision to officially end the pandemic was made by considering the lack of outbreaks that occurred over the summer, data that showed outbreaks mirrored the intensity of the seasonal flu and some evidence of community immunity that suggested between 20% and 40% of the population had been infected.

The 11th Ebola outbreak went on for six months before it was controlled and ended by mass vaccinations that began four days after the report of the epidemic, according to the WHO. Over 40,000 people who were at high risk of infection were vaccinated, there were 119 confirmed cases, 55 deaths and 75 recoveries reported with the outbreak.

Herd immunity is achieved through vaccination or developed immunity to a disease, according to the WHO. Herd immunity to COVID-19 should be developed through vaccinations which activate an individual’s immune system to produce antibodies, though it is unknown what percentage of the population would need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity.

“This is an important area of research and will likely vary according to the community, the vaccine, the populations prioritized for vaccination, and other factors,” according to the WHO. “Globally, data from seroprevalence studies suggests that less 10% of those studied have been infected, meaning that the vast majority of the world’s population remains susceptible to this virus.”

Around 4.7 million new cases were reported in the last week, a 6% decrease from last week, according to the WHO. New deaths reached a record high with 93,000 reported, over 2 million people have died of COVID-19.

The U.S. reported 1,583,237 new cases last week, an 11% decrease from last week, according to the WHO. (RELATED: COVID-19 Antibody Cocktail Effective At Preventing Symptomatic Infections)

Countries began reporting a new variant strain of COVID-19 on Jan. 19 in Brazi, several countries responded by implementing additional travel restrictions, according to the WHO. An international team of scientists is reviewing research to determine the origin of the virus in China.

Professors Susan Allen, Steve Buka, Simin Liu, Stephen McGarvey and Tongzhang Zhen from Brown University did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Colby McCoy contributed to this report.        

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel