The Truth About SARS

Time ^ | April 27, 2003 | MICHAEL D. LEMONICK AND ALICE PARK

[EternalHope]

A really outstanding summary of SARS.

[Arkinsaw]

Haven't you read the other thread? SARS doesn't exist.

[Howlin]

LOL.......I was just wishing that one of the threads would say "The REAL Truth about SARS (And this time we really mean it!)"

[Lijahsbubbe]

No kidding. I was thinking (thought bubble) "I wish I did know the truth about SARS."

My daughter told me yesterday that her classmate who sits at a table of four with her is going to Canada for hockey games. This classmate also has her locker right next to my daughter's.

My first thought, " I don't want her anywhere near my daughter when she comes back!"

Overreacting? Better safe than sorry?

[EternalHope]

Haven't you read the other thread? SARS doesn't exist.

I gotta admit... You made me laugh.

[The Pheonix]

An interesting question would also be "IS CHINA THE VICTIM OF A BIO-TERROR ATTACK ?"

Did a madman-scientist or a group of MANKIND-HATING Nazis-like nuts started this evil scheme ? The truth may or may never be known.

However, The PLA would sure like to find out

Was that why the Chinese Govt initially reluctant to give out info about the disease ? For fear that these info would help the attackers monitor the progress of their attack?

[hillary's_fat_a**]

China may be relatively backward...

Now there's an understatement!

[Petruchio]

An interesting question would also be "IS CHINA THE VICTIM OF A BIO-TERROR ATTACK ?"

More likely that China was working on a bio-weapon that somehow got out into the public.

[The Pheonix]

I hope that the truth is that SARS was the result of a natural mutation and not a bio-weapon

A bio-war is no fun

[Petruchio]

Agreed.

[The Pheonix]

Whatever China may be, backward or what, she has the resources to give SARS a good fight

China can re-activated her "neighbourhood-committees" that can do a thorough survey of everyone for suspected SARS

China can mobilize and call-up her 500-MILLION strong PEOPLES-MILITIA to assist in a massive nationwide Campaign to screen and quarantine suspected SARS cases

[Judith Anne]

Bump to myself.

[Ken H]

Is it possible that SARS has been present in Western populations for a long time but has been no more than a nuisance?

I'm thinking of how small pox decimated American Indian populations but not Europeans, who had developed more widespread immunity to the virus.

Could SARS have been unknowingly introduced by westerners into a population in China that had never been exposed to it and therefore had little immunity?

[Judith Anne]

Anything is possible, but in rural China conditions favor the birth of new diseases and cross-species jumps.

[TheLooseThread]

"...Toronto is losing $30 million a day. All told, says WHO, the global cost of SARS is approaching $30 billion."

Funny economics. If I decide not to fly to Toronto and buy something the world has incured a cost?

Ok. So tomorrow lets all not buy walkmans. That will create a global cost of $600 billion dollars? A cost? For not spending money?

SARS has a cost. It is the resources consumed to fight the disease and the reduced production can, I guess, be viewed as a cost. Buy not flying somewhere to spend money?

Are marketing people running the world or something?

[Betty Jo]

Thanks for posting this article.

[The Pheonix]

China was already the victim of ultra-islamic terrorism, when a couple of years ago, the East-Turkestan terrorist group fighting for the separation of Xinjing province attacked and bombed Chinese school-buses killing 100s of Chinese school-children.
What's to stop these Islamic terrorists consisting of tribesmen from the Uighurs tribes of Xinjiang (the Us had classified them as terrorists) from bio-terrorism on China?

[Future Useless Eater]

My analysis says the SARS death rate is much higher than widely reported.

I believe the various areas differ for two main reasons:

• Some areas have better/worse treatement and life-support facilities.
• Some countries choose to report only their more SERIOUS cases as SARS.

SARS Mortality Rates Based on World Health Organization data                 (Revised: 4/27am)
Area	Recoveries to date	Deaths to date	Recent** Death Rate		Active Cases still in Danger	Projected Future Deaths	Projected Final Mortality
Hong Kong	632	121	12.9%		774	100	14.5%
Singapore	126	21	16.1%		51	8	14.8%
China	1285	122	28.2%		1346	380	18.2%
Canada	77	18	20.7%		47	10	19.5%
World-wide	2239	293	18.5%		2304	426	14.9%
**  ( Deaths in the last 7 days) / ( Deaths + Recoveries in the last 7 days)

Trend - Active Cases Still in Danger
Date	Hong Kong	Singapore	China	Canada	World-wide
Apr 19	914	61	307	66	1616
Apr 20	893	64	497	66	1694
Apr 21 (est.)	872	66	686	66	1771
Apr 22	874	60	708	61	1783
Apr 23	831	58	968	58	2005
Apr 24	812	55	1058	58	2059
Apr 25	781	50	1209	51	2169
Apr 26	774	51	1346	47	2304
(includes new daily cases... excludes cases resolved by death or recovery)

My observations:

• Hong Kong 'might' be getting a handle on their problem.
  • It's average new cases per day is smaller than cases resolved per day.
  • It apparently has the best treatment rate.
• Singapore and Canada MAY be the close to controlling their active caseloads:
  • Canada's higher death rate MAY be because more patients truly had SARS,
    instead of something else like flu.
  • OR MAYBE Canada has poorer healthcare
  • OR MAYBE Canada is ONLY reporting it's more-severe cases.
• China appears to be terribly out of control by every measure.

[raybbr]

Are marketing people running the world or something?

You just figured that out?

[jwh_Denver]

A really outstanding summary of SARS.

From Time? Sure. That's the ticket.