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Webcams to Enforce Singapore Quarantine
magarity writes "Singapore has hired a private security firm to install internet connected webcams in homes of persons quarantined for SARS in order to watch them to see if they go out. They are considering adding electronic wristbands as well. 9 of the 490 persons have broken the quarantine despite a fine of 10,000 singapore dollars ($5,621US). Just over 100 people worldwide have died from SARS so far."
"It was just the cold!"
Do you dream of the dark man, too?
... and in reality is worn about the neck. It comes with a detonatable charge to sever the individual's neck should they attempt to go further than the 8' extension cord allows. Please hope they find an outlet in the bathroom
Now, all dilbert joking aside, this is one disease that scares me... without a common vector identified.... we might all be in for it.
Failing that, meet in in Boulder. Mother Abigail said that The Dark Man is gathering his own on the other side of the mountains. . .
You are not the customer.
The hottest sluts with mysterious respiratory diseases are waiting to chat with YOU!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
So, who wants to take bets on how soon people will hack into these government quarantine webcams and then blackmail people to keep their private lives from being publicly displayed?
Suicide Booth: You are now dead! Thank you for using Stop and Drop, America's favorite since 2008.
Before you start on about 1984, this is happening in Singapore, not the US.
And to head off the inevitable Ashcroft / Patriot Act recriminations, please offer actual *proof* of claims that our civil liberties are being eroded.
hey dickhead - if it truly has a 4% mortality rate, that will kill 1/25 people.
thats at least one student in a highschool class.
at least one person in your extended family.
it does need to be quarantined, or we are all fscked.
... hi bingo
Looks like we may get lucky this time -- hopefully. If a real killer virus hits, we're all doomed. :(
The people will be called randomly during the day and asked to turn on the camera to confirm that they are really there. The camera will not always be on. Just an extra precaution to make sure people don't just have someone else answer their phone.
This is the story of 490 strangers forced to live in a quarantine block together and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting SARS...
My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
For those, like me, who didn't know a whole lot about SARS, someone typed up a real nice Wikipedia entry on SARS, including a nice table of diagnosed cases per country.
fifth sigma, inc.
A 60 minutes segment yesterday reminded views that SARS is far less dangerous than Malaria.
Malaria kills almost 1 million world wide per year.
It is also important to mention that SARS could just be a wake up call, one which prods the public to pursue these deadly diseases. If anything, SARS will establish guidelines to prevent future disease outbreaks.
http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/1998/08/01/48hours/main22761.shtml
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
It's only 4% because people are acting quickly to try and stop it from spreading. I live and work around Toronto (which is one of the places where SARS has shown up with a vengence in Canada), and believe me, it's a big freakin' deal. I had to go the doctor for treatment of strep throat and there was a form I had to fill out about SARS and every medical person there had a filter mask on and wouldn't go NEAR you until they determined you weren't a SARS risk.
Like some others have said, how would YOU feel if someone you knew was one of those 4%. I think your knee would jerk pretty high.
The 4% mortality rate is before all of the hospitals are full and before the world's supply of available respirators is exhausted. If 1,000,000 people in one country catch this, things could be different.
I'm just hoping that this virus mellows out a little bit as it goes through multiple generations in humans, as some viruses have been known to do. That might be the only way it will slow down.
Come on, this isn't a Big Brother issue. These people could be isolated in a high security quaratine wing of a hospital or they could be self-quarantined at home, which is a much better option for the patients concerned, emotionally and psychologically. As someone who's had to have life-saving surgery, I can tell you that recovering at home in familiar surroundings and with all the comforts of your own home (your own bed, TV, PlayStation, PC, internet access, books, etc) is far more preferable than recovering in hospital.
These people are carrying a highly contageous, deadly, virus. They have a responsibility, to other members of society as well as themselves, to behave responsibly until they have fully recovered and pose no further threat to the people around them. All it takes is for the situation in Singapore to deteriorate to one of near anarchy is for one of these individuals to act irresponsibly and go for a walk to the local supermarket.
Containment is the only thing that is stopping that society from breaking down right now. As it is, their hospitals are struggling to cope with the existing SARS cases that they already have.
Remember what happened in the US when everyone was paranoid about anthrax? Remember how people greeted people at their doors with surgical masks? Now do you see why they've taken these basic measures to protect the general public?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
4% is a damn high mortality rate, especially considering we don't know how it's spread. And it could easily climb. Did you look up the remission/cure rate too? AFAIK, noone has 'got over' SARS.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Law enforcement agencies all over America are in the process of laying off 85% of their police force in favor of 100 strategically placed web cams across the United States.
You're pretty silly to be calling someone else names when you don't understand the statistics of disease.
What the parent poster hinted at, and you completely missed, is that measles, among a number of other diseases, have higher mortality rates than just 4%.
Google for it (something the parent poster also mentioned).
...in Toronto, causing Ontario public health officials to order 197 people into isolation.
And, by the way, it's now been discovered to be a relative of one of the many viruses that cause the common cold. But that kind of got overshadowed by all the war news.
As did the anti-war protest database being kept by the NYPD. But ignore this, it's off topic.
This would mean, for example, that in a few years we may have airborne varient strains of other viruses. Now, should an airborne strain of some slow infection cycle be created (like HIV/AIDS, or a pneumonia with a very slow cycle), then most of the world will be infected before the first casualty occurs. Obviously this is fatal situation for mankind. It's not the quick diseases like ebola that we have to fear, it's the slow ones.
Hope it doesn't happen, but with population densities growing I expect that it will.
Comments?
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
Perhaps because Measles has a mortality rate of only about 0.2%? CDC Reference. There is also a vaccine for measles (which I'm sure contributes to the mortality rate listed on that page)
With SARS we're also dealing with something we don't entirely understand yet. I'm personally impressed with how serious it's being treated. If anything, it helps us practice in case of a more significant situation.
Better safe than sorry, you know?
That's what they're doing here in Toronto. People that are refusing to obey the voluntary isolation are being forcibly confined. Some are also being changed by police. /. uhh, I mean working.
In fact one school and an office (HP in markham) have been closed because people refused to obey the voluntary isolation.
I even have family that works in one of the hospitals downtown. There's a lot of FUD about SARS on the news, but I'm not worried. I don't know anyone who's sick and while there are a few new cases being announced, the spread isn't rapid. So I'll just keep reading
This is left as an exercise for the reader.
It's too early to state a mortality rate for SARS. Most of the people who have the syndrome were diagnosed much more recently than the first batch of victims, and we don't know how many of the current patients will survive. Simply looking at the number of people who have already died compared to the number of current cases (like some reporters have tried) does not give you reliable statistics in this case.
Also, the seriousness of an epidemic is determined by communicability as well as mortality. A disease that infects half the world population with 4% mortality is much more serious than one that infects just a few people with 50% mortality.
...which killed upwards of 20 MILLION people, had a mortality rate of 3%.
SARS seems to be *at least* as transmissible as the 1918 flu was.
That's why.
If you'll read the article, you'll see that 1984 parallels don't really work.
Those quarantined "will be called at random intervals daily and requested to turn on the camera and present themselves in front of the camera to show their presence," the ministry said.
The cameras stay off until the person turns it on. It's no more intrusive than someone knocking on your door and requesting to see that you're there (which is intrusive, but not frightingly so). Since the camera is under the control of the person under quarantine, this is more similar to being a video phone than 1984-type constant surveillance.
Just involving technology doesn't make something dystopian; how technology is used does. (The tracking wrist band for lawbreakers, something we do in the USA for people under house arrest, is a bit greyer.)
Did they come out of retirement?
I read the full article about how the Chinese government in Singapore is violating people's right to privacy by placing a webcam in people's homes.
China != Singapore. Singapore is an independant state with its own (authoritarian) government. A majority of Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese, but there are also large Malay and Indian ethnic groups.
The mortality rate of driving a car is 4%?!? Maybe, maybe in a lifetime of driving, but even in that case 4% sounds too much. As for smoking, again in a lifetime and you can choose not to smoke. SARS spreads and kills much quicker than that. If it is let loose, without a cure, it will kill a LOT more than 4% of the population.
Singapore does not have a Chinese government. SIngapore is a seperate country.
Your opinions are severly prejudice.
Singapore is a western country, with a high GDP, a less corrupt government than the US (read corporate influence). The racial mix of SG is Malay, Chinese and others, christian, muslim and buddhist in strong numbers. There is no clear majority [do all people with 'slitty eyes' look the same to you?].
Take Hawaii for example, a mix of Pacific Islanders, Japanese, Chinese White and African Americans - would you like to call that an East Asian country full of people "_NOT_ like us"???
Your numbered points are laughable - take point 2 for some crass idiocy "most Taiwanese want Tibet to be in one China" - Taiwanese believe China is an occupied country and Taiwan should take control of it!!! Totally opposite!
I hope you are as unsuccessful as you are stupid, you surely deserve it.
Hell that's not a bad idea as far as I'm concerned. These people are under quarrantine for a reason. I see no problem with shooting them if they refuse to comply. We know that people who have it can spread it. These 9 people are putting the lives of too many at risk.
You're not sufficiently paranoid. OK, maybe you are, in a sort of Howard Huges microbial way, but if you'll turn your creative anxieties a different direction for a moment -- to the powers of the state -- maybe you'll understand why death penalties for violating quarantine are a bad plan. What's to keep a state from indefinitely detaining someone in their house -- or hell, just shooting them -- by arbitrarily declaring them quarantined? Who's going to check on them and keep the state honest? By keeping the penalty for breaking a quarantine lower (say, monetary, a few hundred/thousand dollars), you get a safety valve for such problems.
(And this leaves aside the moral problems with shooting someone breaking a quarantine, real or supposed... especially with SARS. Not particularly more deadly than the flu. There might be a case to be made for Ebola, which'll kill 90% of its victims, but killing someone who is a vector for a 5% fatal illness, even a virulent one, is trading a probable death for a certain one).
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
2 deaths per thousand cases does not make 4%. It makes 0.2%. That's a very different number. You're pretty silly to be correcting someone when you're willing to take one person's blind assertion over another's without any validation.
That will replenish the world's supply of fossil fuel -- us!
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
You're completely missing the point. Measels are understood, can be treated and even vaccinated against. They don't spread easily. This desease has infected tons of hospital staff and even killed WHO employees. These are people that are used to dealing with sick people, and still they are getting sick. That's a problem. It's not just a matter of the mortality rate, but also how infectious it is. And this one seems to be quite easily transmitted. If a single person with SARS goes in supermarket and sneezes nicely, infects 10 people, who infect 100 people and so on, then that one ass that broke the quarantine, could literally kill thousands by their (just like your) ignorance. Sure people die in much larger numbers of other deseases, but until we understand this virus or whatever it is better, this is exactly what should happen. The WHO and the CDC are doing a great job trying to tame this one.
Reinard
Even having no humans infected at any given time doesn't guarantee it doesn't pop up from time to time (like Ebola).
The unique thing about smallpox (the example you gave) is that it had no carrier and no host. (Malaria for instance has a carrier; I don't know if it infects other mammals too).
So far they have no idea where it comes from, so quarantining people and trying to stamp out the infection is very important, but it may not be the end of the story.
Evidently this is not your quote, but I wonder if the author has ever been to Singapore. It's one of the cleanest countries in the world. I know, I've been there, and many other SE Asian countries.
Put it this way, they're so concerned about keeping the city clean, that even chewing gum is banned.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Nobody's saying that doctors should ignore other diseases. They're just saying that SARS is a serious deal, and that we should focus on trying to stop it.
4% mortality rate may not seem that high, but consider this... how many times have you had a cold in your life? Knowing that SARS is transmitted as easily as the common cold, how does that 4% mortality rate seem now? Think of it this way... there's very little chance that you'd live long enough to have 20 colds.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
No kidding. This thing is being reported as the kiss of death. This is the first time I've seen ANYTHING like the following in ANY news report:
Around two-thirds of people diagnosed with SARS in Singapore have recovered.
I wish someone would have said that earlier. It's the last line in the linked article, and it almost seems like an afterthought.
Why is it just like the media to never say "Oh, yeah, and people really ARE surviving this disease."
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Part of the problem is out over-reliance on anti-bacterial soaps|sponges|cuttingboard|etc.
The more we 'sanitize' our society the more susceptible we all are when a big bad bug comes along. Personally, I keep myself clean and all, but I will not use anti-bacterial products, with the excpetions of neosporin when I cut myself. The minute amounts of bactieria, firuses, molds, etc that I probably ingest build my immune system.
Its not a statistically good sampling, but of my friends that are anti-bacterial everything, and my friends that are more like me. The ones that dont use anti-bacterial products tend to get sick less often, and are sick for shorter durations than the people I know that are nuts about anti-bacterial products.
So I think we need to watch out for these sanitary guidelines - too much is a bad thing.
I wouldn't discount it just because it's related to a more benign virus.
In the world of cats, there is a disease called FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis). It's caused by a corona virus. Some cats survive it fine (like a cold), but most (I think around 90% at least) die because their immune system starts to break down the lining of their abdomen and their nervous system. Their bellies swell up terribly (with pus) and they start to have seizures.
It sucks. If your cat gets it, I hihgly recommend giving them a merciful end. I wish I had for my two cats who got it.
So, just because it's a corona virus, and many corona virii are mostly harmless, don't assume that all corona virii are.
That's right - Influenza killed 63,730 people in the US in 1999, according to the CDC. Flu has a mortality rate of around 1.5%.
If you want to make a *very* rough extrapolation of the data, assuming that SARS is about as virulent and becomes as prevelent as influenza, you might expect it to kill *at least* 130,000 people in the US per year. Bear in mind that the widespread use of an influenza vaccine reduces 'flu deaths considerably... we don't yet have a vaccine for SARS.
That would conservatively put SARS as the third or fourth leading cause of death in the country (yes, above accidents and car crashes, too).
So yes, SARS is a point of concern, should it become endemic in the population.
i thought "About four per cent of patients with SARS die."
so it doesn't kill 1 in 25 people. it kills 1 in 25 SARS-infected people.
with estimated 6,302,309,691 population at the moment, your chance of catching it is 0.00476% (currently around 3000 people infected)
so your chance of dying of SARS should be 0.00017%
probably one in a small town will die, or one extended family member in my whole family generations (dated back to 2000BC) will also die.
SARS is a big deal. It has a mortality rate of about 4% and this is with suspected patients rushed to hospital, pumped full of advanced antiviral drugs and kept in the best intensive care money can buy. Its mortality rate is much higher in untreated cases. It seems to be at least as virulent as the flu.
Do the math. The flu, which has a mortality rate of only 1-2%, kills hundreds of thousands around the world each year. If SARS is not successfully contained, millions will die, mostly in the third world which does not have the kind of medical care available in Singapore.
SARS is still spreading. The outbreak is not over yet. If it reaches densely populated poor urban centres like Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro, or the projects in LA, Chicago or New York, all hell will break loose. This is bigger than some minor conflict in Iraq. This is serious shit.
You should be thankful that cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Toronto are trying so hard to keep SARS under control. Singapore and Hong Kong are the world's two busiest seaports and both are major air transport hubs. They are now the world's bulwark against contagion and if they fail millions will die.
Singapore is the best equipped city in the world to weather the storm. She is a first world country, with per capita GDP equal to the UK. She has the best health care system in the world.
The country is highly controlled and regulated. I am all for civil rights and freedom, but this is one of those times that strong authority is needed to enforce quarantines and stop people acting stupidly. The government is on the ball, among other things shutting down schools, imposing mandatory screening at the airport, and even deploying the army to stop SARS. Honestly, if Singapore cannot contain SARS, the world is fucked.
As an aside, most of the SARS deaths in Singapore are health care workers working with those infected with SARS at the hospital where they are all being concentrated in. I salute the duty, bravery and valor of these men and women.