[EternalHope]

Great article.

We've known about the statistical problem for quite a while on FreeRepublic. Nice to see the news media catching up.

However, someone needs to remind the reporter that more people have died from ___________ (fill in clever comparison here) than SARS has killed in billions of years.

Otherwise, his comment, "..it now seems clear that in the absence of a cure or a vaccine, SARS could eventually kill millions," will definitely draw fire on FreeRepublic.

[forewarning]

Summary: FR has again been ahead of other media in finding and correcting errors of analysis.

If only the noise level weren't so high....

[_Jim]

Analysis of the latest statistics on the global SARS epidemic reveals that at least 10 per cent of people who contract the new virus will die of the disease.

Definetly a case of 'predicting the future based on past' - allowable within limits, but, the 'system' now as some 'controlling feedback' whose goal is to limit the progress of this contagion and NOT let it spread at a pace determined by incubation period, rate of infection of new hosts, et cetra.

[goodieD]

will there ever be any stats we can trust on this disease? I doubt it.. I think this is just the "epidemic" du jour.

[Dark Wing]

fyi

[E. Pluribus Unum]

My suspicion is that older people are more likely to die of SARS, but the article is silent on the age distribution of victims.

[tubebender]

Has everyone that has SARS been hospitalized or only the very sick. Is it possible that there are many who suffered through it at home ?

[PayrollOffice]

We don't know what we are dealing with, because the time frame is too short, the reportage too variable and the samples are too small.

[Plutarch]

Well, how the heck is the rest of the world going to blame this in the U.S. in general, and George Bush in particular?

[TexasRepublic]

Listen to this

[Glenn]

Fortunately, it would be a relatively peaceful way to die in the US. A ventilator and enough drugs to snow you out of this life.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

at least 10 per cent of people who contract the new virus will die of the disease

And the WHO said that we had better just learn to live with it!

[Cicero]

In the first place, a 4% death rate for a highly contagious disease is quite high. A death rate of 10 or 15% is extremely high.

In the second place, we will never get reliable statistics out of China. The leadership probably doesn't have them, and if they do, they will never reveal them.

A British doctor today said that Sars may not be highly contagious or fast spreading. We'd better hope so, because it's the first good news we've heard since Sars appeared on the radar scope.

News reports have said that older people have a higher mortality rate, as you would expect. But plenty of young healthy victims have died, too, so no one can expect to be free from danger, IMHO.

[Kevin Curry]

Lassa fever kills about 70,000 a year in West Africa, but people mainly catch it from a local mouse.

Well, catch that mouse then!

[TheLion]

Thanks for posting these articles.

[TheLion]

Bump

[Beck_isright]

McGlaughlin Group just quoted 18% death rates in Hong Kong and Canada, 13% in Singapore and 50% in rural China (estimated). So which is right? I guess we'll only know when they finally start counting the bodies in an accurate manner.

[FreepForever]

What we are witnessing now may be just the tip of an iceberg.

Virologists expect to see another mutated strain of SARS when it jumps on a HIV/AIDS victim which is a hundred times deadlier than SARS alone. They have found that SARS and AIDS can be genetically combined due to similarity of their RNA. This will make the present SARS virus just “kid stuff”.

It can happen anytime now, as there are no lack of HIV positive persons out there.

[GeekDejure]

. Caution !!! Do NOT sniff your monitor while reading this article !!!

.

[handk]

SARS Scam