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I'm living in Taipei, and having watched the SARS epidemic spread here I have a few observations (strictly from a layman's perspective).

1. Quarantines are easy to announce, not easy to enforce. They depend fully on the willingness of people to comply, and I doubt a majority of Americans will be willing to strictly quarantine themselves if they are determined to have had contact with a known SARS case.

2. Swings from massive over confidence to almost raw panic are very rapid; they give you whiplash. Taiwanese rush to these extremes (we have nothing to worry about, it's out of control, we have it contol...oops), but as the Canadians have shown, it is not an exclusive Asian phenomenon.

3. There are powerful economic forces at play that put huge pressures on the health care system--from the CEOs of hospitals to public health officials. Toronto is a case in point; China is a case in point; and Hong Kong will be a case in point.

4. The hospital outbreaks make taking an injured or sick family members all the more difficult. People get SARS far too easily in hospitals who quite easily misdiagnose SARS.

5. Public sanitation improves, at least in Taipei (I have heard the same in Hong Kong).

6. It is the social impact, at least here, that is the most nerve wracking. Things go crazy quickly here (see item two above).

7. Increased sales of N95 masks will add to 3M's quarterly profits. (Did you know they make them in children's sizes?)

May want to check out this ref in Lancet:

http://pdf.thelancet.com/pdfdownload?uid=llan.361.9368.original_research.25515.1&x=x.pdf

Its a retospective study of SARS infected Hong Kong healthcare workers-looked at what protective gear they wore, and determined what measures were most likely to protect against infection.

Turns out that simple surgical mask and gowning ( N 95 mask not necessary) was probably sufficient protection.

This is valuable info going forward as we look for sensible and economical means to deal with suspect cases.