A Chinese Lab's Race To ID And Halt SARS: Politics and rivalry mix with research

Newsday ^ | 5-6-03 | Laurie Garrett

[Prince Charles]

A Chinese Lab's Race To ID And Halt SARS

Politics and rivalry mix with research

By Laurie Garrett

Staff Correspondent

May 6, 2003

Beijing -- In a dingy four-story building on a dark alley in this city's poorest district, 40 scientists toil through the day and night in the quest to understand and defeat the SARS virus.

They know other researchers around the globe have greater resources, and all are essentially competing, aiming to be first to identify the virus' Achilles heel. And they know that their work is sensitive in a country where the Communist Party leadership has been embarrassed after insisting for months that no such disease was present.

At 9 p.m. on Saturday, scientists here at the Viral Disease Control lab were prowling the unlit halls, egging one another on with jokes and animated arguments over every facet of the strange coronavirus that has been identified as the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The dusty hallways are lined with ancient centrifuges and freezers full of microbes.

[Prince Charles]

Ping!

[TBall]

While everyone is watching sars, I hope no one releases the strangelets.

[blam]

"Strangelets From Outter Space Attacking Earth"

[TBall]

Yikes that does not sound good, but its not going to wreck my celebration of the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla.

[blam]

Cinco de Mayo

[InShanghai]

Between cigarettes and gulps of wine, the U.S. CDC-trained Bi explains how his lab was stymied in its attempts to decipher the SARS crisis

Funny how the US trains their top people...