Of course not. But the point is that it is way to early to proclaim SARS to be anything even remotely like AIDS, for example. We simply don't know enough about it yet.
Tuberculosis kills 3 million people annualy, malaria another 2 plus million. You don't see many headlines screaming about those diseases do you?
This is the crisis du jour, a titillating little fright that the mediots thrive on. Don't buy into their efforts to panic you.... at least not until there is much more substantial evidence....
It's new and early trends are indeed frightening. Comparisons to known risks doesn't diminish the potential danger of this risk. Only time will tell.