This column is moronic. Coming from Reuters that's not surprising.
It remains to be seen how deadly SARS will prove to be. But to compare the number of deaths from a virus that is presently limited to a few thousand cases to the number of deaths in a worldwide flu epidemic suffered by hundreds of millions is like comparing apples with bombs.
A friend who works at Children's Hospital stated in an email reply to me regarding SARS, that they(Hospital researchers) watch foreign born illnesses such as flus and colds, but always determine the strain to weaken as it travels further from it's initial birthplace. Apparently it's a matter of geography, and though the strain will continue spreading, it cannot be as lethal.
Okay, I'm no MD...but it's put my mind at ease for now.