Posted on 04/23/2003 6:58:32 AM PDT by Squawk 8888
U.S. helping us fight SARS, despite Liberal insults
Man the barricades! Those damn American bastards are invading Canada.
Remember how Ontario Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish gained notoriety recently by declaring: "Damn Americans, I hate those bastards"?
She and other Grit MPs, plus a Chretien cabinet minister, were blasting the Americans for building a U.S.-led coalition - strongly backed by Britain and Australia - to get rid of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime and disarm Iraq.
Well, the Chretien government decided not to back Canada's allies in that mission and even sharply criticized them for going ahead.
That's supposedly old news and history now.
But just a little over a month later, those "damn" Americans are coming quick-quick to Canada in answering a call for help from the office of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Liberal government. The PMO asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for help to fight the increasingly dreaded outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that has hit Canada - especially the Toronto area.
Without hesitation, the American agency has dispatched a team of experts to Toronto to investigate one of the most bedevilling aspects of SARS: the fact that more than 70 health care workers who have been treating SARS patients have come down with the disease. And this is happening despite what had been considered the most careful use of hygienic masks, gowns, gloves, caps, etc.
"We need that kind of expertise to help us out," said Dr. Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. "The health care workers are too important. I mean, these people are putting their lives on the front line for us and we've got to do everything we can to protect them."
Request came from Ottawa
Although the request for the CDC's help officially came from the federal government, it really originated from the health care officials on the SARS war front in Toronto. In other words, our top medical people are at a loss to understand how SARS is infecting so many health care workers - doctors, nurses, etc. In desperation, they have ordered such new precautions as full face covers, double gowns and gloves in an effort to block the contagious infections.
Perhaps one other thing that prompted Canada to call in the Americans was the fact that the CDC announced Toronto was being added to the list of hotspots with "suspected or documented community transmission" of SARS. American media noted this was the first time a non-Asian centre or country was added to the CDC's watch list for SARS.
Also, the CDC announced it's warning Americans coming to Toronto to avoid hospitals in the city or other parts of its health care system. And it's handing out yellow alert cards to travellers coming from Toronto by air and land, requesting they monitor their health for SARS symptoms for 10 days.
In other words, the situation in Canada is increasingly gaining international attention and concern. Reported cases jumped to 324 yesterday from 316, while the death toll remained at 14 - all in the Toronto area.
One of the main problems in dealing with the SARS threat is that there doesn't seem to be any one person in charge of the overall battle to beat this baffling disease. Local health and medical authorities have tried to handle it from the start, with provincial authorities gradually joining the fray. Meanwhile, the Chretien government stayed out of the increasing mess until very recently.
So now, we have a political football game developing with Sheila Copps, a federal cabinet minister from Ontario with Liberal leadership ambitions, calling for the situation to be declared a national emergency - requiring the feds to pay 90% of the costs in the anti-SARS war.
No sooner did she say that than Anne McLellan, Chretien's Health Minister from Alberta, claimed there was no national emergency and to declare it so was a "huge over-reaction." The truth is that this public health threat is showing too many signs of getting worse and possibly spreading to various other parts of the Toronto area and the country.
What's really needed is for the federal government to appoint a SARS czar. Such a person would have the assignment and power to unite all levels of government and health care people in a co-ordinated, all-out effort to beat this health and, yes, economic menace.
Oh yes, and with the full support of those "damn" Americans. Anything less may prove ineffective.
"What's really needed is for the federal government to appoint a SARS czar."
Very clever!
The primary way that SARS appears to spread is by close person-to-person contact. Most cases of SARS have involved people who cared for or lived with someone with SARS, or had direct contact with infectious material (for example, respiratory secretions) from a person who has SARS.Potential ways in which SARS can be spread include touching the skin of other people or objects that are contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching your eye(s), nose, or mouth. This can happen when someone who is sick with SARS coughs or sneezes droplets onto themselves, other people, or nearby surfaces.
It also is possible that SARS can be spread more broadly through the air or by other ways that are currently not known.
Perhaps, but it is also in our interest to try to nip this in the bud and minimize tha damage to Americans. While I don't always like the necessary things we do on a global scale, it would be foolish to "cut off our nose to spite our face".
"That is obviously not the case here."
Exactly. Canada stabs us in the back and then immediately expects us to help them. And when we complain they list the four or five things they have ever done for us as reasons why we should just *tolerate* their anti-Americanism.
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