Probable SARS In Ohio County(WV)

WTOV-TV(NBC affiliate, Steubenville, OH) ^ | 5/23/03

[FITZ]

If SARS hits the USA hard, it will not be easy to contain--because no one (liberals, conservatives or libertarians) will easily accept mandatory quarantines.

It wouldn't be nearly as easy for Americans to accept mandatory quarantines because for one we need to get out and earn a living, we have kids to provide for and care for, mortgages to pay etc. Chinese are slave anyway, it's not like a Capitalist country they live in, the state will provide for them, the state owns them. I don't see how our government would have the right to drag us out of our own homes.

[TrexDogs]

These incongruities almost make me wonder if the Asiatic pool is more susceptible than the rest.

Food for thought ... you might be onto something here! It would be interesting to know if the Toronto cases were spread evenly among race or not. The first two cases were Asian Canadians, but I don't know if specifics were reported after that.

[twntaipan]

Singapore and Hong Kong and Taiwan are full of Chinese people who are not slaves. Their quarantines have largely been home quarantines, and they have had to deal with issues of people needing to go to work to earn a living.

But you make my point: Is a public health threat like SARS something that Americans will take so seriously that they will honor home quarantines if that is needed? I doubt it. And that makes me say that SARS in the good ole USA will not be easy to contain.

[sonsofliberty2000]

so far on wwva 1170 the news is trying to play it down, saying that only such and such probable cases are sars.

They are saying the blood work will take 3 weeks to know for sure

[FITZ]

Would you turn yourself in if you had a couple muscle aches and a minor dry cough if you thought you'd be forcefully placed into quarantine? Would you be able to pay your bills if you couldn't work for 6 weeks or however long they decided you had to stay home? I don't think many of us lead the kind of lifestyles that would allow that --- of course if we were deathly ill and on a respirator but that isn't what SARS does to everyone. I imagine they'd have to quarantine entire families ---everyone exposed to someone suspicious for SARS. I don't think it's really possible.

[Pure Country]

We just went to a 78th Fraser Concert in Springfield, IL last weekend. The 78th are from Toronto. We know lots of them personally and of course had to do the hug thing. Probably not smart--actually really dumb. Great concert though!

[twntaipan]

So...becoming a spreader of a deadly disease is justifiable? Don't get me wrong (and I am currently living in a SARS outbreak area and worry about myself and my family having fever and being quarantined hastily; it may be hypthetical for you; it is reality for me), this is not a simple issue. But if people knowingly break quarantine and spread the disease, how would you hold them accountable and contain the spread?

[twntaipan]

Incidentally, one misdiagnosed case in Taipei has led to 10,000 being exposed to SARS. It should not be ignored as a threat.

[Free Trapper]

Testing was done on 25 animals bought in the Hong Kong market.

Of 8 species represented,all 6 masked palm civets,1 badger and one raccoon dog had the SARS virus.

Knowing something about the trade in wildlife this spooks me and I'm in the U.S.

What do you think about these animals being infected?

[twntaipan]

I think they probably carry that strain of coronavirus naturally--or at least it's viral close cousin. Somewhere in the food chain the virus mutated, the Cantonese kept eating it, and that mutation, though not deadly to the civit, is doing in the chef and the patrons---and a whole lot more people.

[Timesink]

I'm sure the Times' resident West Virginia expert, Jayson Blair, will get to the bottom of this immediately.

[Dane]

I'm sure the Times' resident West Virginia expert, Jayson Blair, will get to the bottom of this immediately.

LOL!

This may be inappropriate for a thread about SARS, but I say a pox on both their houses, the New York Times and Jayson Blair for their blatant lies and deception.

[FITZ]

That's the other reason quarantines won't come close to working in this country. I don't live in your area ---but look at the Mexican border ---you would have no control over how the Mexican government handles SARS and it's unlikely they'd do much at all (look at TB, hepatitis, and the rest that are common over there) and we would have thousands coming daily unchecked over that border ---legally and illegally so where I live, quarantining me an American would be completely silly. Then there's the Canadian border which might not be as open but there is still a lot of traffic back and forth.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

That's the other reason quarantines won't come close to working in this country. I don't live in your area ---but look at the Mexican border ---you would have no control over how the Mexican government handles SARS and it's unlikely they'd do much at all (look at TB, hepatitis, and the rest that are common over there) and we would have thousands coming daily unchecked over that border ---legally and illegally so where I live, quarantining me an American would be completely silly. Then there's the Canadian border which might not be as open but there is still a lot of traffic back and forth.

Very well put. I posted something to this effect earlier and no one responded (they still don't get it). The port city of Mazatlan has massive traffic with China. Seems to me to be the first place to start check for influx of SARS. Illegal aliens WILL carry it up here. Time for travel lockdown. If not, a lot of people are going to die unnecessarily.

[twntaipan]

So how do you contain an infectious disease that has a mortality rate of 55% for those over 65 and spreads as well in hospitals as anywhere (maybe better)? Do you just wait til it has killed off the unfit, and the rest move on as if life is the same?

That may sound like hyperbole, but I am serious. How will you suggest SARS be contained?

[twntaipan]

I think you are right, but to me, a travel lockdown will only be effective if there is mandatory quarantine for family/friends/close contacts with probable SARS patients. Why? Because it is already present in the USA. That there have been no deaths is a great blessing.

Good will and best wishes will not protect the USA from SARS -- take Canada for example. Chretien, et. al. put on a marvelous public relations campaign, but SARS is back.

[twntaipan]

Incidentally, the quarantines here are supplemented by checking the temperature of everyone entering any building with more than 100 people. It is a pain--but it doesn't mean everyone has to be quarantined. Those quarantined are those known to have been exposed.

[pointsal]

You said SARS-free....Maybe free-SARS would be closer to the truth.

[FITZ]

I don't know how it can be contained because I don't know how it's spread. They can't keep it out of the USA by quarantining people inside the USA when they get it. Once a significant number of cases are brought into the USA, it's going to spread if it has the means to spread. They can't keep thousands of people from entering the USA every day ----and we have people coming in from all kinds of places ---and with so many entering illegally taking the temperature of just those coming in legally won't make a difference.

[FITZ]

Those 90+ illegals in just one truck found in Victoria could have just as easily had SARS, some weren't from Mexico but from other Central American countries, there was the second truckload found in the same area, a bunch were found in a train car in Alamogordo in the same couple of days and dozens were found living in one wait-house in El Paso ---when you 50 people living in one average 3 bedroom house and just one has SARS and then they get on a truck headed north and spread out to who knows where ----we will have a problem if it's a deadly disease.

Thousands of people come over the Mexican border unchecked every day ---and this is while we're under terrorist threats. They won't close the border for terrorism, they won't close it for SARS.