[jacquej]

Listen, I am thinking here, which is always risky for me! (I can think my way into ridiculousness, ya know) So, take it all as just an effort to keep the aging brain cells forming new connections...

Toronto has done a good job with this, compared to Cascadia (The Vancouver/Wasington State Metro Areas, sorta), as the quarantining in Toronto has been agressive. Now, we suspect it isn't long enough, but I do not think it is fair to single out Canada for criticism for the following reason.

We have no idea what is happening here in the States. The ridiculous statement by the Health Dept. official yesterday from Wheeling, West Virginia is an indication of that, supporting my suspicion that US is using the same crazy obfuscating "definition" weaseling as other parts of the world.

For example, defining as "probable" only after a case has recovered. Death, of course is due to some other cause, understand? According to that WVHO, the "probable" case in critical care there probably didn't have SARS, although he fit all the criteria as we know it.

It is my fear that the US is in for a much tougher time with SARS than Canada for the follwing reason. Canada will automatically pay unemployment benefits for anyone quarantined with SARS, from what I have read elsewhere, (but I need you Canadians to confirm that.)

That won't happen here in the US, making quarantine compliance much more difficult. We have far too many people living from paycheck to paycheck who will resist sensible quarantine, if we ever figure out what that is!!!!

We have a non-compliant population in the states. We are a nation of "doing it my way" and do not conform to cultural norms as many other societies do... That can work for us in many ways, but in certain situations, can be a real problem. Shutting down schools and quarantining students at home to stop the transmission of SARS would be an example. Too many families here are single parent, or double-working parent families.

Other odd thoughts. The cross border gambling! Anyone know how many people travel across the Niagara Falls border everyday to go to the Casino there? How many Torontonians go there to gamble. The Falls, and the Niagara region, including Niagara-on-the Lake?

Think about it!!! Let's realize that all the cases in Toronto came from one index patient who had traveled in from Asia. All it takes is one.

About the summer break we are all hoping for... I wonder about this. I know that influenza is supposed to die down in the summer months, but what about coronavirus? Will it do the same thing as the influenza virus? Those of you more familiar with the statistics on "summer colds" or how the common cold behaves in the summer time might be helpful here.

Odd thoughts about "fashion" and handwashing? I know from handling raw poultry on a daily basis to feed my dogs a raw diet how important it is to wash my hands after handling such. Before I switched to raw feeding, I enjoyed keeping my nails a bit on the long side, but realized that the undernail area on my fingers was hard to really clean, so now I clip them right off with nail clippers every couple of days.

How many health workers in hospitals/doctors offices are wearing longer nails, false nails etc... you think the US could demand an end to wearing these nails, and require all to clip nails to the quick? How about the demand that this be done for workers in pharmacies, supermarkets, fastfood restaurants, shopping malls, health food chains?

Well, I better let my fingers and brain rest a bit. Don't want to wear anything out, including your eyeballs.

[Judith Anne]

I'm not sure that making such a rule about the nails is going to be helpful--there are other issues, such as rings (I only wear a plain wedding band to work, but others wear more)...for one thing, although there's been a lot of publicity about the artificial nails, gloves are mandated to be worn anytime there is a possibility of touching any body fluid. Gloves are, in my experience, worn in almost every patient's room, with handwashing before and after.

The rule you cite, though, is gathering steam. In my school, it was that nails must not extend beyond the end of the finger, which still leaves room for germs to hide. Gloves are the best bet, in my opinion.

[-YYZ-]

"Toronto has done a good job with this, compared to Cascadia (The Vancouver/Wasington State Metro Areas, sorta), as the quarantining in Toronto has been agressive. Now, we suspect it isn't long enough, but I do not think it is fair to single out Canada for criticism for the following reason."

And just to say a little more in defense of our response here, I've seen many paranoid and insulting comments on these threads about the "communist" Canadians response to and reporting on SARS. While it is true that it appears that public health officials here could have done a better job, and are inclined to downplay the number of cases and likelihood of transmission, there is one big difference between Canada and say, the PRC: we have a free press. Any lies, obfuscations and cover-ups by officials here are uncovered eventually, and reported in the media. This tends to (eventually, at least) force our officials to come clean and change their approach. This is happening today, in fact, when the reporting of cases of SARS will change to using the WHO's standards, which err more on the side of caution than Health Canada's standards. So when you suddenly see the numbers of suspected, possible or probable cases go up, be aware that these are cases which were already known but reported differently. Also there's good reason to believe these differences in reporting were based on reasonable differences of scientific opinion about this disease which is still not very well understood.

As I say, as a Canadian who lives less than an hour away from Toronto I am not so impressed with how this has been handled so far, but I do believe some of the criticisms leveled at our handling of it by posters here has been hyperbolic, to say the least.

[Fury]

I believe that Canada did not handle the situation as well as they could have, as evidenced by the most recent cluster of cases. Even some of the health care professionals involved stated that protocols developed were not being followed. If the US finds itself in the same situation, then shame on them as well.

[riri]

We have far too many people living from paycheck to paycheck who will resist sensible quarantine, if we ever figure out what that is

I said the same thing a few days ago. Also, we have many people who work the type of jobs where if you don't work, you don't get paid. To make it worse, many of these jobs are in the service sector where would-be patients come into contact with the public.

Can you imagine trying to quarantine after, say, a Super Wal-mart checker has come down with SARS and went to work with symtoms for two days, as the high school student in Toronto did?