Over the last few years, in several countries, there have been large outbreaks of the influenza virus. which statement correctly describes the outbreaks?

D. This represents a pandemic because the outbreaks took place in several different countries.

Explanation:

According to The Rochester Regional Health website...

"A pandemic is a type of epidemic that relates to geographic spread and describes a disease that affects an entire country or the whole world. An outbreak becomes a pandemic when it spreads over significant geographical areas and affects a large percent of the population.

In short, a pandemic is an epidemic on a national or global level."

The question states that the virus broke out in several countries at a large scale. So the outbreak in question is bigger than an epidemic, which only covers a region. Therefore, it must be a pandemic.

A pandemic is a disease whose effects are global- so our reasoning must be that the influenza virus was a pandemic because it took place in several different countries.