Epidemic versus Pandemic
Epidemic and pandemic are terms used in relation to disease outbreaks. There are similarities between the two words but they are not synonyms.
Demic, the common word for both Epidemic/Pandemic, comes from the Greek demos which means “people of a district”. Epi means “on, upon, near, at” while pan means “all”.
An epidemic is an extensive manifestation of a disease in a city, region or country at a certain time.
A pandemic is the widespread outbreak of a disease over a large region beyond national borders or across the world.
Epidemics are more often seen every year when a large number of people are affected by the flu viruses while Pandemics happen randomly, once in a decade or more with a much bigger impact over population putting peoples’ lives in danger on a larger scale. Good examples of pandemics are: the very recent Covid-19 and the Spanish flu from 1918-1920.