[hove]

"I'm not the one comparing the two ; the article did that. It's also factual, that the Spanish, ASian, and Hong Kong flu pandemics were VERY serious; far MORE serious and also TRUE pandemics ; which SARS isn't."

YET!!! Cripes you people! It isn't the absolute count...it's the death rate. At 4%....SARS is worse than even the horrible 1918 flu! We are in the early days of this mess. I hope it dies out....but if it does become a "true" pandemic....it will be one of the worse in history. Why is that so hard to understand?

[blam]

I bought the last 10 surgical masks at the local hypermart 3-4 days ago. I hope I never need them.

[nopardons]

Why is it SO difficult for you hyperventaliting scardy-cats to realize that SARS has , indeed , been around for many months and has NOT speard all that much, and has NOT killed all that many people. Past pandemics, without the aid of planes, spread far faster and far wider than SARS has !

Yes, I know, facts don't matter to you guys; you just enjoy wqorrying yourself and as many others as you can gull, into mass hysteria. ; ^ )

[exDemMom]

I'm perfectly clear on the point you're making. The mortality rate is VERY high, for something which, according to latest reports, is a cold-like disease.

Running the numbers, if everyone in my town got the disease, nearly two thousand would die. Very sobering.

Other questions I'm wondering about are the rate of infection in those exposed, and if there are certain factors which increase the risk of contracting the disease or the severity of the disease.

[flashbunny]

"YET!!! Cripes you people! It isn't the absolute count...it's the death rate. At 4%....SARS is worse than even the horrible 1918 flu! We are in the early days of this mess. I hope it dies out....but if it does become a "true" pandemic....it will be one of the worse in history. Why is that so hard to understand?" um, because you're taking things out of context and out of perspective?

Right now that 4% includes a lot of people who live in third world conditions. It's also on the very early end of the life cycle of this virus. Before a pattern emerges, testing and treatment aren't done as well as they are when the outbreak matures.

So here's what we have going for us now:
1. The US has far better medical facilities and programs than china and other asian countries where this is going on.
2. We have better living conditions than the countries hit the hardest, including better hygeine and sanitation.
3. We have more information on how to spot and control this illness.
4. We have the ability to rapidly transmit this information and coordinate treatment.

We will have more cases as this develops, but it won't be the plague some people seem to be looking for. Oddly, when you present the facts to some people,they actually seem disappointed in you for not buying into the hype.

[CobaltBlue]

An engineer pointed out to me that since the death rate is lagging the infection rate, the death rate is actually higher than 4%. He suggested 7%-8%.