Canadian SARS outbreak mystifies experts

You are sounding like some of our leftist friends here. Why wouldn't they just call their pastor or rabii and let them know they are in trouble?

Oh please. I am being realistic, not calling for the worker's of the world to unite.

My point was many people who come into contact with large amounts of the public work in the sevice industry. I, myself, in college waitressed and bartended. If I missed a shift, I missed $100+ (substantial amount of money for a college kid). I worked 3 days a week and many times I went to work sick.

I didn't run to my pastor because I had a cough and fever.I did the crap I had to do, just as millios of Americans would do if they had SARS symptoms.

Is there any way to correllate anecdotal reports from afflicted areas in China to actual reports and generate a more realistic number? Only two or three cities would be needed.

I've studied the numbers in every area of China that I could find. All Numbers consistently look 'picture-perfect' as if they were generated on a computer to guarantee an "all-is-well" outcome.

It's just too far-fetched to believe they have the same perfect control on this thing in every province and municipality, expecially in their hinterlands.

Sadly, agreement here as well.

Terrorists may choose "death as a martyr", but do you really think they will choose extended suffering as a doable form of martyrdom?

bump

Thanks for the update. This is something to be real concerned about, Toronto for me is just a hop, skip and jump away. Between this and mad cow, Canada's problems will be ours, no doubt about it.

From the way this disease is acting,I think if some young and healthy individuals could self infect and spread SARS,a good percentage of them would live through with minor ill effects.

Yes,some might die or ruin their health but even they would accept it as the will of "Allah".

We're not talking about what most of us here would call "sane" individuals.

I think there are only three ways to contain SARS. Develop a quick and accurate test, or develop an effective vaccine in the very near future, or immediately shoot and cremate all SARS victims.

I suggested a ban on travel to and from the US to the effected areas. I was immidiately branded a a "hysteric" and a rabble-rouser, there was an especially vocal Canadian contingent.

I reiterate what I said in the past. It is my God given right as an American to learn all of details of SARS and react in anyway that I see fit. If this means terminating associations with people that have recently visited Canada or China or forgoing travel plans, because the source of infection has repeatedly been determined to be an airplane then so be it.

It's you God given right to "panic" as an American.

Thousands of people arrive in the United States from areas where SARS outbreaks are occurring to participate in gatherings such as academic courses, business meetings, or sporting events. Guidance is needed to provide a consistent, rational approach to SARS prevention without unnecessarily stigmatizing these groups or interfering with collegial pursuits, commerce, and other important activities. "
What else is there to say?

"Unnecessary stigmatization" is what we need to guard against.

See it's this type of rhetoric that really pisses me off.

On one hand you got the liberals worrying about "Unnecessary stigmatization," and on the other hand I got my own party concerned with the "financial implications" of all of this. In the mean time who is looking out for me, the guy who wants to go out of his way to avoid an inaccurable disease with what seems to me to be an disproportionately high fatality rate?

The answer. No one.

BTW: I would trust whatever I read in the Enquirer about SARS 100% over anything my own government told me.

God forbid, you feel stigmatized if you have a highly contagious, possibly fatal and, yet to be fully understood disease.

My lord, who comes up with these guidelines? Mary Poppins?

The CDC. A lot of people here on FR were parroting their "best case scenarios" as though it were the Gosphel just a few weeks ago. I wonder where they are now.

Those who assign fault to socialized medicine in Canada are providing themselves temporary reassurance. Given the right group of carriers, this disease could overwhelm this country in a matter of weeks. A single prostitute in a truck stop, a sailor on leave in Seattle, or a homeless person in New York, could shift the infection from the traveling class to the general population.

I agree with you 100%, but I suggest to you that it's only a matter of time before you are branded a hysterical rabble-rouser by those that defend the status quo here.

Sadly, their seems to be large contingent on issues such as this that are only confortable with the most optimistic view.

I remember hearing a report on NPR in 81 or 82. The story was about a new disease that was killing young gay men in Florida. I was in a public health related field at the time and I remember going back to the office and telling the boss about the NPR story.

I predicted then that AIDS would be a huge problem and that many people would die. I could not understand then and do not understand now, the almost total lack of concern for the prevention of the spread of AIDS.

I suppose we have accepted AIDS, and recognize that some have welcomed the disease because it is viewed almost entirely as a disease of choice. There is an "It won't happen in our family" mentality and certainly we do not have the political will to take the public health measures necessary to stop the transmission of HIV.

In 1981 there were 300+ known cases of AIDS. As of the end of 2001 over 800,000 cases have been reported with over 462,000 deaths.

We see the same thing in regards to automobile accidents. There is a benign acceptance of 40,000 plus traffic fatalities that are for the most part preventable.

Now we are facing SARS. We continue to believe that it will happen to someone else. Those that travel to China are at risk, but I'm not. I hear it all the time from family and friends.

We do not know much of anything about SARS at this point and the possibility of containment of the disease is almost pure speculation. If the disease is as infectious as it seems and if the mortality rate is somewhere between 10% and 20%, then we may see millions of deaths in the USA alone. That is a horrifying thought when one looks around and imagines their parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren becoming ill and dying a horrible death.

The status quo is a wonderful thing and like the Elders of Owlgate, we can all pretend that nothing ever changes for a time, but ultimately we are going to be facing the reality that things have changed radically.

When it comes to public health, no expense should be spared to stop this disease and to find effective treatments for the cases that somehow slip through. Public health is not a democratic vs republican or liberal vs conservative issue. Public health is a quality of life issue and our survival as a republic depends on our ability to manage the public welfare.

Using AIDS as an example, if history repeats itself, we are likely to do too little much too late

Again, well said.