[TaxRelief]

So far it doesn't look like SARS transmits too well. Diseases that don't transmit well don't pose very much threat even if everybody who gets it dies.

Case in point would be Ebola.

[discostu]

Well ebola is the worst of both worlds, it transmits really well (especially at the end) and is fatal most of the time. Luckily it some how always manages to peter out before it can really screw things up, probably because it's so fatal it might actually kill too quickly to give it time to spread. Species jumpers like ebola are the ones that scare me the most, diseases usually aren't too abusive to their native host because if they wipe out the host they wipe out themselves. Species jumpers don't have to be nice to the new host, they've already got a host. The Four Corners hanta-virus is a great example of that, it's actually pretty innocuous in the field mice that are it's normal host, very fatal to people, good news in that one is it doesn't transmit from one person to another only mouse to mouse or mouse to person.