Good point
You're talking about the National Bureau of Economic Research, and they analyze recessions long after the fact based on multiple factors.
From this page:
The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.
Based on this, it's entirely possible, even likely, that some portion of the current period will eventually be defined as a recession. Unfortunately, by that time the recession is usually over.
For example, this pronouncement came a little late to save Bush the First in 1992.