The World Health Organization uses three criteria to decide if a PHEIC (public health emergency of international concern) or a pandemic to characterize an infectious outbreak. A public health event must be serious, sudden and unexpected, likely to spread across national borders.
When to decide a pandemic has run its course is a trickier business. The committee will consider vaccinations and case numbers. But political considerations often take precedence – in other words, someone”s opinion.
According to noted South African epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim, the real end of the pandemic could be the emergence of a final variant. even if it mutates, is not as virulent as the previous version.
However, many European countries are not waiting to compare relative pathogenic potential of successive viral mutants; they have lifted restrictions already. Ultimately the financial impact on large multi-national corporations such as Pfizer will determine when the so-called pandemic will be declared officially ended.
