Free Republic

Are We All Socialists Now?Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson would be proud of what the Republicans who run the federal government are doing now: They are planning to add a massive new element to the welfare state. Cheered on by President Bush, the Republican Senate is poised to approve a bill adding a prescription drug benefit to the already bankrupt Medicare program. So far, there is no organized resistance to the plan in the Republican House. This new entitlement is politically shortsighted, pandering to forces that could eventually smother the Republican Party. But worse, it is fiscally and morally indefensible....

VIGILANTES and police have killed hundreds of cats and dogs in the most gruesome manner as fears grow in China that pets could be spreading the Sars virus. From Guangzhou in southern China, where the virus appeared, to Beijing, where thousands of people are infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome, pets have been strung up, buried alive, poisoned, thrown out of high-rise windows and beaten to death. Some pet-owners have evacuated their cats and dogs, fearful that neighbours might seize and kill them. Others have asked vets to put down their pets humanely before a mob could catch them....

Beijing residents flee `savage attack against mankind'AFPFriday, Apr 25, 2003,Page 1 China implemented drastic quarantine measures yesterday to contain the SARS epidemic after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against travel to three new locations including Beijing, where scenes of panic erupted. After covering up severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks for months, China's state-run media began rallying the nation against what it called a "savage attack against mankind." The backtracking came as the global death toll from SARS rose to 261 after eight new deaths in Hong Kong and China, and the World Bank warned the epidemic was damaging...

Return of al-Qa'ida provokes panic across the world By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 17 May 2003 The United States, Britain and Australia ­ the three countries that sent ground troops to depose Saddam Hussein ­ have issued a spate of new warnings on possible terrorist attacks in Asian, Arab and African countries. But several of the countries named are complaining that the alerts are unjustified and an overreaction. In the most specific warning, the US State Department said it had received information that an attack could be launched "in the near future" against "Western interests" in the Alhamra district of...

<p>May 11, 2003 -- As SARS fears spiral out of control, hundreds of cats and dogs in China have met gruesome deaths at the hands of angry mobs who suspect pets could spread the virus - which has killed eight more people, government officials reported.</p>

An American friend of mine visiting from South America walked away from one of last month's parties around the L.A. Times Books Festival rather shaken and bewildered. "I felt like I was in a loony bin," he said as we emerged from a chic book-launch party in the Hollywood Hills. "If one more crazy person came up to me with some crackpot theory, I swear I would have thrown him off the balcony," he said. I know what he meant. With the 2004 presidential campaign now under way, it seems clear that as whacked out as George W. Bush may...

BERKELEY, Calif. - The University of California at Berkeley will turn away new students from SARS-infected China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong this summer in what is believed to be the first such move by a major U.S. university to prevent the spread of the virus. The decision, announced on the campus Web site Friday, affects several hundred students who were planning to attend Berkeley for summer school, which begins May 27. Instead, those students will get their money back. There have been no cases of SARS at Berkeley, which has a very large enrollment from the Asian regions hit...

THE ICONOCLAST WEEKLY RANT SHOOTING SARS by Lin Anderson It's just the way the world works -- no sooner do we get a War of Liberation out of the way when -- bam! -- we get broadsided by a new and mysterious disease. This life is just one big ol' cliffhanger. The disease in question is of course SARS -- an acronym for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- and it's apparently nothing to be trifled with, or -- to be more specific -- sneezed at. Health professionals tell us it's a sort of super-pneumonia which originated in China --...

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - People around the world are overreacting to SARS, creating a sense of panic that could overwhelm common-sense measures for containing the virus, top AIDS experts said on Monday. Sensational media coverage of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed 326 people worldwide, has fanned the flames, said David Baltimore, who won the 1975 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on how viruses cause disease. "I think there has been overreaction," Baltimore, a leading AIDS researcher who is now president of the California Institute of Technology, said in a telephone interview. "I have to agree...

The worldwide SARS death toll continued to climb on Saturday as a leading British expert warned the mortality rate from the mysterious disease could be double that suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Canada recorded its 20th death, a 77-year-old man from Ontario province, casting doubt on official comments that the outbreak is under control. Six deaths in Hong Kong and Singapore's 19th fatality were among 15 fatalities in Asia, bringing the global toll to 292. As US President George W Bush offered to help beat the epidemic in China, where drastic measures are being taken to halt the...

April 27 2003: A SARS Story Last Tuesday, the day before we flew to Taipei, we heard on the news that SARS had broken out at the city's Hoping Hospital. This is where my sister-in-law, Shiang-Yi, works as a nurse. We called her to see if she was alright. Sure, she said. I'm not even in that part of the hospital. Don't worry. So, the next day we flew from Pingtung to Taipei and had a terrific day. We visited with Taipei's Deputy Fire Chief and his wife and Eva Mei got to see a lot of neat fire stuff....

Super-spreaders fan SARS fears By M.A.J. McKENNA The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Health authorities are watching uneasily for an event that could reverse their apparent success in containing the U.S. outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome: the arrival of a so-called super-spreader. There are 41 probable cases of SARS in the country, and only two sufferers were infected by other Americans. In Asia and Canada, by contrast, clusters of 20, 50 and more than 100 cases have been caused by single highly infectious individuals. A 26-year-old Singaporean infected more than 100 people -- including her parents, grandmother, uncle, brother and pastor. A...

The death rate for Sars could be significantly higher than previously thought, according to an British expert's study into the pneumonia-like virus. The research by Professor Roy Anderson, due to be published in a medical journal next week, is expected to say the virus could kill between 8% and 15% - or one in seven - of those infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) had predicted a death rate of 5% to 6% and said the virus could be beaten if countries worked together to stop it spreading. A WHO spokesman said Professor Anderson was a top class professional and...

The Threat Posed by SARS is Unprecedented By:JASBANT SINGH, Associated Press Writer April 26, 2003 Asian health ministers agree measures to stop 'unprecedented threat' of SARS KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Asian health ministers agreed Saturday on measures to slow the spread of SARS, including more screening at international departure points, a bar on travelers showing symptoms of the virus and a requirement for health declaration forms for visitors from affected countries. "The threat posed by SARS is unprecedented," said the regional director of the World Health Organization, Shigeru Omi. "The virus has already demonstrated its explosive power to cause sudden...

SARS Scare Reaches South Texas LAST UPDATE: 4/25/2003 5:22:41 PM Posted By: Julie Fike The SARS border scare reached all the way to Laredo. Border agents in South Texas near Freer Friday arrested 17 illegal immigrants. Six of them were Chinese. Agents took the six to a doctor’s hospital in Laredo. They were tested for SARS. Three of the six were given a clean bill of health. The results are still pending on the other three. Laredo Immigration Assistant Chief George Gunnoe says he believes the final test results later Friday night. Gunnoe says the chances of them having SARS...

I think some people are missing the message here. If you take the data from the WHO sars page, you can easily find out that: 1) The death rate worldwide is 11% if calculated by the deaths over deaths plus recoveries method, or "only" 5.9% if you calculate it by dividing deaths by total cases. 2) The rate at which cases are growing is currently about 3.5% PER DAY (divide today's reports by yesterday's). That means the number of cases doubles every 20 days or so. Usually, a scary rate like that doesn't persist for very long with a fatal...

Billion SARS cases feared By Mary Papadakis 27Apr03 MORE than one billion people worldwide could be infected by the deadly SARS virus within a year, a leading UK scientist has warned. Dr Patrick Dixon, a specialist in predicting global trends based at London's Development Management School, said SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) had the potential to turn into a pandemic and infect more people than AIDS. The grim prediction comes as a Melbourne infection control specialist warned the virus could destroy Third World countries. Glenys Harrington, who flew to Manila yesterday to join the World Health Organisation's assault on SARS,...

HUNDE, China — An hour south of Guangzhou, the Dongyuan animal market presents endless opportunities for an emerging germ. In hundreds of cramped stalls that stink of blood and guts, wholesale food vendors tend to veritable zoos that will grace Guangdong Province's tables: snakes, chickens, cats, turtles, badgers, frogs. And, in summer, sometimes rats, too.They are all stacked in cages one on top of another — which in turn serve as seats, card tables and dining quarters for the poor migrants who work there. On a recent morning, near stall 17, there were beheaded snakes, disemboweled frogs and feathers...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A Brown University faculty member and a 2-year-old Minnesota boy are being monitored as possible SARS cases - both recent visitors to Toronto. Toronto is the epicenter of the biggest outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome outside of Asia, where the disease originated. More than 250 probable or suspected cases have been reported in the Toronto area, with 19 deaths so far. The unnamed Brown faculty member in the division of biology and medicine has been asked to stay away from campus. Students who have been in contact with the professor have been informed, according to...

4,000 Quarantined in Beijing as Suspected SARS Cases Climb EIJING, April 25 — At least 4,000 Beijing residents with exposure to a contagious respiratory disease are being kept in isolation, often in their own homes, health authorities said today, and a second major hospital was put under total quarantine, with virtually no one allowed to enter or leave. City education officials also revealed that 300 college students who had contact with infected people suffering the dangerous new disease, known as SARS, have been sequestered in a military training camp for two weeks' observation. As Beijing began a stringent new quarantine...