An endemic solution to a pandemic epidemic..?????

Haven't you all, at least those with poor engwrush like me, wondered why does everyone nowadays use weird vocab like pandemic, which had seemingly hithero just been coined specifically to describe the recent bird flu outberak? I mean, most of us should be familiar with the word epidemic which ,we feel, should be used instead to describe what some top UN official fears would cause 175 million deaths worldwide. (I wondered how he arrived at that figure....mayeb i should start buying totto...) Or perhaps, some of us would think that "pandemic" is just another word for epidemic. Well... Wrong. The Brits never coin two word to describe 1 thing, which explains why we always score so low in vocab. =/
Anyway, I finally decided to check up on those 3 cheem words in the title. (Its more of curiosity anyway) And so, allow me to explain the panda in the pandemic!! According to Oxford's Mini Dictionary...
Pandemic: Occurring around the whole world or country
Endemic: Occurring (affecting?) within a community
Epidemic: (of a diesease) Spreading throughout a community
So, having checked up the definitions, it would seem like pandemic and endemic refer to the extent of impact to a people while epidemic still keeps its sole position as the word describing a deadly diesease outbreak. So, considering this, isn't it wrong to say that a Bird Flu Pandemic will cause worldwide death rather than a bird flu epidemic causing the same? I mean, what we are experiencing is already a bird flu pandemic!! Hardy birds have already brought the insalubrious virus from its supposed origins in Asia to Italy, Canada and perhaps undocumented parts of Africa too. There is no doubt that the disease has taken a global foe. But if the definitions hold, we should be experiencing worldwide death as according to that UN official. But nope....It won't be until a epidemic that satisfies the conditions of being deadly and having rapid human-to-human transmission, that bird flu will really vitiate global economies.
So, blast those English professors taht coined the dangers of bird flu Pandemics! Call it a pandemic now but when it really spreads...call it a deadly epidemic as in all past deadly diseases... =)