To put the pan in the demic

A 15th-century manuscript of Ammianus Marcellinus' Histories (Vatican, BAV, Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.E.27) I've noticed that the words 'pandemic' and 'epidemic' have recently been used interchangeably in the media and in everyday speech. Any extensive outburst of a contagious disease is a pandemic or an epidemic, depending on which prefix you prefer or comes …