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"A question for the experts out there: can a gas mask stop a virus?"

Not with any certainty. Depends on the filters used.

That said, why panic? It's a darned Asiatic flu which originated in Asia, of course. There isn't a whole heckuvalot anyone can do to prevent it but take care of themselves and try to remain as calm as possible.

As for the reason there's little info on the CDC...the hype is kinda sudden, no one knows what they're dealing with and that should be our first clue that a mountain is being built just as the molehill was discovered.

It's happened before: ebola in Canada and the US three years ago, and West Nile two years ago...BOTH were sold as THE plague that was going to decimate the human race (again)

A team of CDC epidemiologists arrived in Hanoi Saturday to gather samples and try to determine what's causing the outbreak. A separate team of French doctors was expected to bring medicine and respirators.
WHO officials urged all countries to help in the outbreaks. Scientists do not know whether SARS is a virus or even an infectious agent. As a result, they are focusing on the possibility that it is a previously unknown infectious agent.

I'm not one to easily panic, but when I read that this stuff was 100% fatal, I got nervous. Since then, I read a post that noted that some people had been sent home, so that relieved me quite a bit.