[ContemptofCourt]

Please don't burst the bubble of the doom-and-gloomers, who are still bitter that the world did not end with Y2K.....

[trebb]

Nice statistics, but they aren't relevant. They use the populace at large and how many die, rather than the risk of actually catching the disease and subsequent chances of death. They sound really good unless you happen to be one of those who decided to listen and end up getting SARS when you could have stayed away and been OK. It's kind of like a gay man telling a prospect that his AIDS isn't that virulent and unless the prospect has internal lesions, there is little chance of becoming infected...

[billorites]

"One in every 1,272 Canadians was sexually assaulted in 2001. "

Hard to imagine the risk is evenly spread among Canadians.

[thesharkboy]

The reason for the concern about SARS is not the present risk of getting or dying from it, but the future risk of the disease getting out of hand. If a significant portion of the population gets it, hostpitals will be overwhelmed, and many more people will die.

[Pylot]

Last time I checked you could not

- acquire skin cancer from a coughing person next to you.

- fall from a ladder as a result of a person coughing next to you

- die in a car crash from a person coughing next to you

But you could be "murdered" by a person with SARS coughing next to you just as certainly as if you were stabbed.

I'd rather be bitten by a dog any day than to contract SARS.

And to the statement that dying from this is very rare, well it sure was final to the person who died from it!

Its always the money grubbing politicians who will sacrifice a few humans in the name of the local economy. After all, the mayor has the best protection Canadian tax dollars can purchase and I don't see him making the rounds at the local hospital!

[FreepForever]

Hong Kong is doing all of the below to keep the cases to 1,400 in 5 weeks and yet, there are still 30 new cases per day:

70% of the population wear a face mask. Retail staff are wearing disposable caps and gloves too.

Lifts buttons are covered with a plastic sheet which is changed every 2 to 3 hours. All public places are fumigated daily. some twice.

An entire housing complex which is infected is cordoned off with all residents sent into quarantine.

Hospital workers are not allowed to go home after their work shift to prevent transmitting to their family. They have to stay in make-shift quarters.

All non-emergency operations are cancelled (including cancer) because hospital operation rooms are now turned into ICU wards for SARS patients. Private hospital beds are "drafted" to cater for "general" patients.

Strictly no family visiting of all patients (including non-SARS patients) in hospitals. No last rite allowed. Patient cannot see their family before they die. They allow them to do it with web cam through internet.

No make-up allowed for patients died of SARS. Coffin must be sealed. Can't even say last goodbye in funeral.

All schools suspended (3 weeks). Some even indefinitely in infected areas. All students must pass temperature check and step on disinfectant soaked carpet before entering school. Hand wash every hour. Strict all day face mask rule. Heavy dose Vitamin C for every student. No school lunch in canteen. Teacher supervised lunch in classroom only (strictly no talking). No physical contact with other students.

Temperature check at airport in and out. One passenger found sick, the entire plane's passenger are quarantined.

All shops, banks, offices, restaurants, schools will be closed immediately for disinfection if one case is found among the staff. The entire team of staff will be sent into quarantine and the place disinfected.

Cinemas and restaurants are closing down to cut loss. 70% of the airplanes are grounded, hotel are empty (one 5-star recorded 0.3% occupancy). It is now causing an "economic meltdown" in a once prosperous city.

Now, ask yourself, are you perfectly happy with wearing a mask for the rest of your life?

[paulk]

The author should have studdied statistics a bit more before writing this. There is a possibility that SARS will spread exponentialy making his numbers quite silly.

The estimates in Singapore are a 8-9% death rate.

[2oakes]

If you are tried to the tracks, a distant train does look very small for a while...

With a 5-7% death rate, there will be a 5,000-7,000 death rate per 100,000 infected.

Just hope quarantine is not seen as a restriction of liberty - we have ONE chance to stop this.

[FreepForever]

The writer has misused the death rate as a very misleading argument to dismiss the danger of SARS. The danger of SARS is not death, but the high risk of getting it unknowingly.

Every lift button, escalator hand rail, door knob and handle, public phone, keyboard, teller machine and thousands of other very innocent daily items can get you infected.

Come one, tell me, aren’t these daily items MUCH MUCH more common than skin cancer, people on a ladder, car crash, rapist and dog bites?

[jiggyboy]

"The safest way to travel is in a plane," said Emile Therien, the president of the Canada Safety Council. "But probably your chances of dying in a plane crash coming to Toronto are much greater than your chances of acquiring SARS."

For the record, the odds of dying in a plane crash this year are approximately one in 380,000.

Astonishingly poor example for refuting the danger of contracting SARS, I dare say.