Well you better get on over to the Journal of Infectious Diseases and let 'em know their wrong then.
"The sudden emergence and rapid global spread of a novel H1N1 influenza virus in early 2009 [
1] has caused confusion about the meaning of the word “pandemic” and how to recognize pandemics when they occur.
Any assumption that the term pandemic had an agreed-upon meaning was quickly undermined by debates and discussions about the term in the popular media and in scientific publications [2–5]. Uses of the term by official health agencies, scientists, and the media often seemed to be at odds. For example, some argued that a level of explosive transmissibility was sufficient to declare a pandemic, whereas others maintained that severity of infection should also be considered [
2–5]"
"
Even if there is no single accepted definition of the term pandemic, it may still be fruitful to consider diseases commonly said to be pandemic and to try to understand them better by examining similarities and differences among them."
The sudden emergence and rapid global spread of a novel H1N1 influenza virus in early 2009 [1] has caused confusion about the meaning of the word “pandemic
academic.oup.com