No, the CDC hasn’t stopped calling COVID-19 a pandemic

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. At the time, more than 118,000 cases of COVID-19 had been identified in over 110 countries worldwide, and the disease has continued to spread since.

Now, more than 27 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported globally, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. But some social media users are still questioning the terms used to describe the disease.

"The CDC has removed the ‘Covid-19 Pandemic’ and replaced it with ‘Covid-19 Outbreak’ on their website," one Facebook post says. "It was never a pandemic."

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The post mischaracterizes the coronavirus updates on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website homepage.

As early as Jan. 18, the CDC’s top homepage story was about the coronavirus. "CDC is closely monitoring an outbreak caused by a novel (new) coronavirus in Wuhan City, China," the story said, according to an archived version of the page.

The CDC was also using the term "outbreak" in February and March, archived pages show.

The CDC homepage still refers to the virus as an outbreak on its homepage.

However, the use of the term "outbreak" doesn’t mean COVID-19 is not a pandemic, as the CDC’s website explains.

The site defines outbreak as "a higher-­than-expected number of occurrences of disease in a specific location and time."

"An outbreak is called an epidemic when there is a sudden increase in cases. As COVID-19 began spreading in Wuhan, China, it became an epidemic," the website explains. "Because the disease then spread across several countries and affected a large number of people, it was classified as a pandemic."

The CDC site uses the term "outbreak" to describe COVID-19 on its homepage, while "pandemic" is used elsewhere on the site.

The post also incorrectly asserts that COVID-19 was never a pandemic.

Featured Fact-check

Bloggers

stated on January 26, 2020 in an article

Says China "stole Coronavirus from Canada and weaponized it into a Bioweapon."

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11 and has not changed that designation. 

The CDC refers to COVID-19 as a pandemic on various website pages dedicated to providing coronavirus information, including the "Global COVID-19" page, the "Travel during the COVID-19 Pandemic" page and others.

The CDC’s page about influenza pandemics, which was last updated on May 12, plainly declares: "The United States is NOT currently experiencing an influenza pandemic. There is an ongoing pandemic with a new coronavirus."

A Facebook post claims, "The CDC has removed the ‘Covid-19 Pandemic’ and replaced it with ‘Covid-19 Outbreak’ on their website. It was never a pandemic."

The CDC website’s homepage currently refers to the "novel coronavirus outbreak," and has been using that term since January. But there is no evidence the CDC removed the word "pandemic" to replace it with "outbreak." 

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March, and the CDC website still refers to "the COVID-19 pandemic" on several of its pages.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!