New SARS disaster looms in Beijing

Asia Times ^ | 06.03.03

[Enemy Of The State]

New SARS disaster looms in Beijing
By Asia Times Online Staff

HONG KONG - In recent days, a community in Beijing has been living in a state of constant anxiety. It has experienced what may prove to be as large a localized outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome as occurred in Hong Kong's now-famous Amoy Gardens, where in late March more than 300 people were infected with SARS, of whom 35 eventually died. It is obvious that some people have covered up the outbreak, and the situation has not been represented whatsoever in government-issued SARS statistics.

The outbreak occurred outside of Beijing's Fifth Ring Road - the outskirts of the Chinese capital - in Beiyuan Gardens, a large residential complex. Residents have indicated that the property developer responsible for managing the complex has consistently neglected to report the outbreak out of fear of the effect on property sales that would result from public knowledge of such an outbreak. Dozens of proprietors within Beiyuan Gardens have complained to anti-SARS district offices in Laiguangying village (where the complex is located) and the upscale Chaoyang district (which administers Laiguangying) as well as Beijing's municipal anti-SARS office. It wasn't until recently that the property developer overseeing the complex posted notices in corridors of the complex.

A public announcement has been posted, but the most severely infected building, Building No 15 of the Xiuju Garden subcomplex, has yet to come under a full quarantine. Because the situation has been hidden from residents, the massive complex's numerous previously unaware residents (there are more than 10,000 residents in total) have continued their close contact with one another. This has led to the recent infection trend taking a significant upturn.

The complex's residents have already started to take numerous precautions on their own to protect themselves, including opening a temporary Internet forum to ensure that every resident has access to the most up-to-date information on the complex's outbreak.

Some residents have said that they telephoned a nearby district anti-SARS office and were informed that one resident had already died from SARS within a building in the complex's Qingyou Garden subcomplex. Moreover, there were residents in Xiuju Garden's buildings 10 and 15 who had already been diagnosed, in addition to suspected cases in buildings 9 and 6.

From the beginning, the Laiguangying village anti-SARS office did not want to report the situation, saying it was for the property-development company to report. But residents said the company would not say anything about it. Employees of the anti-SARS office expressed great displeasure with the company, as the office had already given it a name list with the expectation that it would report to Beijing.

A resident also indicated that one night last week they saw with their own eyes a No 120 ambulance remove a resident from Xiuju Garden Building 17 a little bit after 9 o'clock. Later that same night, after 10pm, the ambulance returned and removed someone from Building 15. The resident, who declined to be named, asked, "If there's a quarantine on those who have been in close contact [with confirmed or suspected cases] then it should have been implemented on [May] 26 or 27. Why wait until yesterday night?" In actuality, the only quarantines that exist in the complex are self-imposed quarantines that residents who fear having or contracting SARS have put upon themselves. The man added that he believed that the most pressing matter at hand was to seal off the entire complex, thus cutting off what certainly had the potential to become another source of a rapid outbreak in the surrounding area, including Beijing.

Beijing media have yet to report on the situation at Beiyuan Gardens. Some residents have tried to bring attention to their situation via public websites, but, for example, their information was deleted within less than a minute after posting it on the popular Internet portal Sina.com. Even their telephones are now unable to send out text messages - Beiyuan Gardens residents have become overnight outcasts.

Having fallen into despair, some residents of Beiyuan Gardens sent a letter to Wang Qishan, Beijing's new mayor. Wang came into his present office after Meng Xuenong, the previous mayor, was removed from his post on April 20 as a result of the previous cover-up of the city's SARS epidemic. Complex residents are still waiting for Mayor Wang's response. The entire letter follows:

Esteemed Mr Mayor:

Hello sir!

The SARS cases throughout the country and including Beijing are steadily decreasing, yet Beiyuan Gardens, situated in Chaoyang district's Laiguangying village, has become an overlooked corner in the battle against SARS.

The outbreak here is increasingly severe: In Xiuju Garden's Building 15 alone, there are three diagnosed SARS cases in apartments 1408, 1501 and 1701 as well as one suspected SARS infection. The most recent case was diagnosed on May 27, and the infected resident has spent three days and three nights in the neighborhood's Laiguangying clinic (this "clinic" was set up in a ground-floor shop in a residential building - next to a store and a supermarket that both have a steady flow of customers). At present we have registered 138 people in the clinic, all of whom urgently need to be quarantined and examined. In addition, Qingyou Garden's Building 20 also has a confirmed case who died on May 8. There are also suspected cases in [Qingyou Garden's] buildings 12 and 15. Zihuan Garden Building 9 has one suspected case.

Beiyuan Gardens is a large-scale residential community with about 10,000 residents. There are also a few thousand construction workers continuing their work on projects on the premises. New SARS cases have been emerging in Beiyuan Gardens from the beginning of May until the present. However, owing to it being situated outside of the Fifth Ring Road in a place that connects the city to the countryside, the task of governing the complex is left to the property developer charged with managing the community.

As for the manner in which the aforementioned company has managed [Beiyuan Gardens], its supervisory efforts have been lacking. The property developer, in order to forestall the negative effects of an outbreak on property sales in the development, has consistently not reported anything. It wasn't until after dozens of property owners registered multiple complaints with the Laiguangying, Chaoyang and Beijing municipal anti-SARS offices that the property developer decided recently to post announcements of SARS infections in the corridors of the affected buildings. Yet, even as of today, Xiuju Garden building 15 has still not implemented a complete isolation and quarantine. Now in places within the community such as Qingyou Garden trash is piling up as it falls from the sky. There are no disinfection arrangements. There is no garbage collection. Up to today, the people who are moving into the area have been scurrying about. The community's multiple clinics, and squalid neighborhood hospital have yet to be sealed off. There is nobody taking responsibility for disinfecting the community.

Beijing's SARS infections are decreasing, thanks to the diligent efforts of the municipal Party committee, the municipal government and every Beijing resident, so why are the SARS infections in Beiyuan Gardens still going up? The explanation is very simple. It's due to the property developer and Laiguangying village's government not viewing the situation as important. Their covering up of this outbreak has led to the spread of SARS to people who were uninformed and in close contact with infected residents, and the situation is exhibiting a steady upward trend.

In order to ensure the lives and health of the tens of thousands of residents in Beiyuan Gardens and quickly stem the spread of SARS, we vehemently plead to relevant leaders within the municipal Party committee and the municipal government to open an investigation regarding the outbreak prevention situation in Beiyuan Gardens and to supervise and urge the Laiguangying Village government and the property developer to adopt the following feasible SARS control measures as soon as possible:

1) Implement complete isolation and quarantine of the building with the most severe outbreak, Xiuju Garden Building 15, and to conduct multiple quarantines and inspections of the other buildings and floors with residents who are confirmed or suspected SARS cases.

2) Conduct automatic examinations of anyone who has come into close contact with residents who are confirmed or suspected SARS cases instead of merely posting a notice telling them to go to the hospital for examination.

3) Implement a full quarantine, after a thorough disinfection, of the clinics in Xiuju Garden Building 3 and Building 16, as well as the community hospital on the ground floor of Building 17 in addition to forbidding the opening of clinics and hospitals in residential buildings.

4) Disinfect the garbage resulting from daily life and eliminate the piles of garbage in Qingyou Garden as soon as possible.

5) Require, on a daily basis, obvious posting of updates that reflect the community's true outbreak situation.

6) Require that the property developer purchase infra-red heat sensors, which are to be used to check the body temperature of every person who enters or leaves Beiyuan Gardens.

7) Disinfect elevators and hallways several times daily, while requiring that everyone who rides in an elevator don a face mask.

8) Strengthen the control of the flow of people in and out of Beiyuan Gardens.

In order to avoid a massive outbreak in Chaoyang district's Laiguangying village that attracts worldwide attention as in the case of Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens at this, the latest juncture in the fight against SARS, we hope with sorrowful hearts that the relevant leaders will adopt these measures as soon as possible. We must not let Beiyuan Gardens get left behind in the battle against SARS!

On May 28, the newest information on China's SARS situation was: Four new infections nationwide, three of them in Beijing, one of which was in Chaoyang, that very one was in Beiyuan Gardens!

Signed,

The residents of Beiyuan Gardens

May 29, 2003

Translated by Christopher Horton.

[ken5050]

The women's soccer games have just been move to the US....has anyone seen any speculation as to what is the time line to move the 2008 Olympics out of China?...

[xJones]

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is running ads trying to attract tourists back to Beijing.

[aristeides]

I guess the reports of the end of the epidemic in Peking were premature.

[Enemy Of The State]

You have just hit on the multi-billion dollar question.

Ive been watching on the People's Daily website every day and it seems that the number of new cases of SARS has decreased steadily to the point where there have been none reported as of today.

DOesnt that sound a little fishy considering how badly they are/were affected just recently?

One of my good friends in Beijing commented to me that she does not even believe those figures.

They (Chicom Govt) want this to go away as soon as possible so that it doesnt have any chances of affecting their hosting of the 2008 Olympics.

[ken5050]

The didn't raise any objection to transferring the soccer tourney, and that was billed as an early prelim to show that China could handle a big event...also, the NBA is taking it on the chin..the Yao thing is huge in China...and there are supposed to be some all-star exibitions this sumer..but the pros don't want to go....if there's one more large outbreak..you'll start to see contingency plans discussed.....

[Judith Anne]

This article states that there are 138 people in the SARS clinic at the development who have yet to be registered or examined...So I doubt they are included in China's statistics, which confirms our doubt that they are accurate.

I guess if they don't examine or diagnose them, they aren't really SARS and can be left out of the count.../sarc

[aristeides]

The optimistic side of the story: SARS Outbreaks Eases in Asia, but Stress Level Remains High.

[Enemy Of The State]

Ping!

[Future Useless Eater]

• China's 'official' SARS numbers and their recent 'improvements' are bogus.
• Many areas outside of Beijing had been exploding, Then abruptly stopped ALL REPORTS of NEW 'PROBABLE' cases in most cases about 2 weeks ago.
  Here are some examples...

---

Inner Mongolia (province) - TOTAL 'probable' case count
                                   Jun 01 (284 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
April 28 (114 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
[abrupt change occurred May 10]

---

Guandong (province) - TOTAL 'probable' case count
                                   Jun 01 (1511 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
April 28 (1395 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
[abrupt change occurred May 10]   ...vertical scale = 1350 to 1520

---

Tianjin (municipality) - TOTAL 'probable' case count
                                   Jun 01 (175 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
April 28 (43 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
[abrupt change occurred May 14]

---

Shanxi (province) - TOTAL 'probable' case count
                                   Jun 01 (448 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
April 28 (243 TOTAL 'probable' cases)
[abrupt change about May 14]   ...vertical scale = 200 to 450

---

The only way these skyrocketing graphs could flat-line SO ABRUPTLY is China cheating
on their reporting, and to stop reporting any new SARS cases as 'probable'.

[Prince Charles]

It is obvious that some people have covered up the outbreak, and the situation has not been represented whatsoever in government-issued SARS statistics.

Just as we have suspected.

[per loin]

Anyone tempted to believe the Chicom figures might wish to take a look at this graph which compares the waning of the epidemics in Hong Kong and Beijing.

[Judith Anne]

Thanks for posting. ;-D

[Dog Gone]

It appears that China is anxious to have SARS behind them, and the best way to do that is to ignore new cases. It makes the numbers look good at WHO, and that's all that matters.

I was starting to get a little optimistic about China, but when you see reports like this, it's hard to remain that way.

[Judith Anne]

Neat graph, and thanks for the link. I don't believe it...;-D

[Judith Anne]

I agree. I wonder if anyone in China's health system will be able to speak out honestly...

[per loin]

I remember the Chicoms saying they would have the epidemic "stopped" (or some such term) by the beginning of June. I believe they said this shortly after they admitted that they had an epidemic in Beijing. Anyone have that quote handy?

[CobaltBlue]

Thanks for the charts. I noticed the same thing but did not really think about it critically. Your charts are invaluable.

The reporting makes no sense. They have to be lying, but why? Don't they realize it will just make it worse?

My 70 year old dad "met" a Chinese woman on the Internet and is planning on visiting her. His third wife died and he is lonely. Based on what he sees in the news media, he thinks that the SARS epidemic in China is over. I emailed some articles about Chinese government manipulating the data, but he believes the hype.

[Judith Anne]

I remember the quote very well, so I can confirm that, but I don't know where to find it...

[Judith Anne]

I'm going to go looking around for that article...it may take a while...