Bradley
If they say it is a pandemic then be assured it is. WHO will not move to Phase 6 unless it is sure.
While I don't argue with yourself or Sunfish regarding the "potential" severity of this, I do have some problems with that statement above.
Being a born again skeptic, I am mindful that the WHO is a political body that is continually looking for relevance.
And relevance comes to them in these imagined or real pandemics in buckets, so it would be un-natural for them not to whoop it up.
If it goes away, they can bask in the glow of "having fixed it" and get funding...or if it gets worse, then "we have to fix it" and they get funding.
It's a no brainer for them really.